April-February fiscal deficit lower at Rs 13.5 lakh crore, capex spending also slower at 80% of FY25 target

Fiscal deficit numbers for February

Centre's fiscal deficit between April and February has come in at Rs 13.5 lakh crore, or 85.8 percent of the full-year target, data released by the government on March 28 showed.

Fiscal deficit was at 85.8 percent of the target of Rs 15.7 lakh crore compared with 86.5 percent achieved in the previous fiscal.

India's capex is also likely to fall short as it lagged at Rs 8.1 lakh crore. With a month to go, Centre may have to spend Rs 2.1 lakh crore in March to reach the Budget target of Rs 10.2 lakh crore for FY25.

The government had utilised 80 percent of its full year target, lower than the utilisation rate of 85 percent achieved during the similar period in FY24.

In the Budget presented on February 1, the government had kept the fiscal deficit target at 4.4 percent of the GDP.

The capex target for FY26 has been set at Rs 11.2 lakh crore, slightly higher than the Rs 11.11 lakh crore target set for FY25.

Revenue expenditure was higher in the 11 months of the year at 83.3 percent or Rs 30.8 lakh crore compared with 83.1 percent achieved in the previous fiscal.

Total expenditure was also lower at 82.5 percent of the full year target of Rs 47.2 lakh crore compared with 83.4 percent in the previous fiscal.

Net tax revenue was also lower at 78.8 percent of the full year target of FY25 compared with 79.6 percent in FY24.

Government borrowing is expected to rise 5.7 percent to Rs 14.82 lakh crore in FY26, the data showed. The government is expected to frontload borrowing, just like the previous year, and data released on March 27, put the gross borrowing for the first half at Rs 8 lakh crore, or 54 percent of the target.