India’s April-January budgetary fiscal deficit reached 58.9 percent of FY22’s revised target.
As per the data furnished by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the fiscal deficit — the difference between revenue and expenditure — for the April-January 2021-22 period stood at Rs 937,868 crore (Rs 9.37 lakh crore), or 58.9 percent of the revised estimates (RE).
The FY22 deficit has been pegged at Rs 1,591,089 crore (Rs 15.91 lakh crore).
Besides, the CGA data showed that the fiscal deficit during the corresponding months of the previous fiscal was 66.8 percent of that year’s target.
The Central government’s total expenditure stood at Rs 2,809,384 crore (Rs 28.09 lakh crore) (74.5 percent of RE) while total receipts were Rs 1,871,516 crore (Rs 18.71 lakh crore) (85.9 percent of RE).
ICRA’s Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said: “With a massive 48 percent YoY growth in revenue receipts, measured 10 percent rise in revenue expenditure and 22 percent expansion in capital expenditure, the Government of India recorded a fiscal deficit of Rs 9.4 trillion (59 percent of RE) in April-January FY2022, appreciably lower than the Rs 12.3 trillion (68 percent of actuals) in the previous year.
“The GoI’s revenue spending grew by a sharp 30 percent in the month of January 2022, whereas capital spending was contained at Rs 0.5 trillion, 6 per cent lower than January 2021. With Rs 1.6 trillion left to be spent in Feb-March 2022, it appears unlikely that the capex target of Rs 6 trillion included in the FY2022 RE will be met.”
