India's fiscal deficit stands at 20.5 pc of annual target in April-July

India's fiscal deficit narrowed to 20.5 per cent of the annual target in April-July period of the current financial year as compared to 21.3 per cent recorded in the corresponding period of the last year, as per the official data released on Wednesday.

India's fiscal deficit narrowed to 20.5 per cent of the annual target in the April-July period of the current financial year as compared to 21.3 per cent recorded in the corresponding period of the last year, as per the official data released on Wednesday.

In actual terms, the central government's fiscal deficit stood at Rs 3.41 lakh crore in the April-July period of the current financial year, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). The difference between the government's expenditure and revenue is referred as fiscal deficit.

While as a proportion of the annual target the fiscal deficit in the April-July period of 2022-23 is lower than the previous year, in absolute terms it is 6 per cent higher when compared with the actual deficit recorded during the corresponding period of last year.

For the financial year 2022-23, the government is targeting a fiscal deficit of Rs 16.61 lakh crore, which is 6.4 per cent of the estimated GDP.

The government's receipts, including taxes, stood at Rs 7.85 lakh crore in the April-July period, which is 34.4 per cent of the Budget Estimates (BE) for 2022-23. During the year-ago period, it was nearly the same at 34.6 per cent.

Total tax revenue during the first five months of the current financial year stood at Rs 6.66 lakh crore or 34.4 per cent of the full financial year's budgetary estimate.

( With inputs from ANI )