April-December Fiscal Deficit At Half Of FY22 Budget Estimate
April-December FY22 fiscal deficit at just over 50% of the budget estimate.
The Indian government's fiscal position remains comfortable, with data for the first nine months of the financial year showing that only half the budgeted deficit had been exhausted.
For April-December FY22, the fiscal deficit stood at 50.4% compared to 145.5% last year. Stronger tax and non-tax receipts have helped the government stabilise its budget.
Revenue receipts were at 96.9% vs 53.9% last year.
Net tax revenue was at 95.4% vs 58.8% last year.
Non-tax revenue was at 106.7% vs 32.8% last year.
Total expenditure was at 72.4% vs. 74.9% last year.
Capital expenditure was at 70.7% vs 75% last year.
"Despite a spike in capital spending in December 2021, only half of the budgeted fiscal deficit was actually incurred by the Government of India in the first nine months FY22, boosted by the healthy tax and non tax revenues," said Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ICRA. "With the Economic Survey hinting at spending being back-ended, we continue to pencil in a modest overshoot relative to the budgeted fiscal deficit of Rs. 15.1 lakh crore," Nayar said.
The fiscal deficit for the current fiscal is pegged at 6.8% of the GDP. For FY23, economists are forecasting a deficit of between 6-6.3%.
In its Economic Survey presented a day ahead of the Union Budget, the government said that a strong rebound in government revenue in FY22 has meant that the government will comfortably meet its targets for the year while maintaining the support, and ramping up capital expenditure. "The strong revival in revenue means that the government has fiscal space to provide additional support if necessary," the survey said.