Centre’s fiscal deficit at end of first half of FY25 touches 29.4% of full-year target: CGA

31 Oct 2024 Evaluate

Data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) has showed that the Centre’s fiscal deficit at the end of the first half of financial year FY25 touched 29.4 per cent of the full-year target. In absolute terms, fiscal deficit - the gap between government’s expenditure and revenue - was at Rs 4,74,520 crore at September-end. The deficit stood at 39.3 per cent of the Budget Estimates (BE) in the corresponding period of 2023-24.

In the Union Budget, the government projected to bring down the fiscal deficit to 4.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the current 2024-25 financial year. The deficit was 5.6 per cent of the GDP in 2023-24. In absolute terms, the government aims to contain the fiscal deficit at Rs 16,13,312 crore during the current fiscal. The revenue-expenditure data of the Union government for the first six months of 2024-25 showed that the net tax revenue was Rs 12.65 lakh crore or 49 per cent of BE for the current fiscal. The net tax revenue collection was 49.8 per cent at September-end 2023.

The central government’s total expenditure in the six months through September stood at Rs 21.11 lakh crore or 43.8 per cent of BE. Expenditure was 47.1 per cent of BE in the year-ago period. Of the total expenditure, Rs 16.96 lakh crore was in the revenue account and Rs 4.15 lakh crore in the capital account.

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