New Delhi: The Union government’s fiscal deficit for the first ten months of the current fiscal has been estimated at Rs 9.38 lakh crore as per the latest data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Monday. It is 58.9 per cent of the annual target which has been estimated at over Rs 15.91 lakh crore as per the revised estimate presented by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union budget for FY 2022-23.
Sitharaman had earlier estimated the fiscal deficit for the current financial year to be Rs 15.07 lakh crore, 6.8 per cent of the GDP. However, in the revised estimate, the fiscal deficit for the current fiscal has been revised to over Rs 15.91 lakh crore, which would be 6.9 per cent of the GDP. Fiscal deficit is the difference between the government’s revenue and expenditure. In the revised estimates, the finance minister estimated the total expenditure of the government to be Rs 37.7 lakh crore as against her budget estimate of Rs 34.83 lakh crore, an increase of nearly Rs 2.87 lakh crore.
The government borrows money from markets and other sources such as small savings accounts, which are part of the Public Account of India, to meet the shortfall between the expenditure and its revenue collection. Sitharaman hopes to collect Rs 20.79 lakh crore in revenue this year as against the estimated expenditure of Rs 37.7 lakh crore, the difference being financed through borrowing loans from the market.
Interest payment burden
A big part of the overall budget, nearly one-fourth is spent in interest payment alone. According to the revised estimates, this year’s interest payment alone is expected to be over Rs 8 lakh crore, which is over 21 per cent of the total union budget. The CGA data released Monday showed that the government has paid Rs 6.14 lakh crore in interest payment alone in the first ten months as against the annual estimate of interest payment of nearly Rs 8.14 lakh crore.
Revenue Deficit
According to the latest data, the Centre’s revenue deficit is still below 50 per cent of the annual target. The CGA data shows that the revenue deficit, the difference between the revenue collection and revenue expenditure, was nearly Rs 5.29 lakh crore in the first 10 months as against the revised estimate of over Rs 10.89 lakh crore. The reason for this is buoyant revenue collection as the Centre is able to collect nearly 90 per cent of its annual revenue collection target of nearly 20.79 lakh crore in the first 10 months.
Read: FY22 fiscal deficit estimate a responsible target, says Sitharaman
