Fiscal deficit widens to 67.8% of FY23 target at Rs 11.91 lakh crore till Jan

The Finance Ministry building situated in North Block, New Delhi

The central government's fiscal deficit for the first 10 months of 2022-23 has widened to Rs 11.91 lakh crore, the Controller General of Accounts showed.

At Rs 11.91 lakh crore, the fiscal deficit for April 2022-January 2023 accounts for 67.8 percent of the full-year target for 2022-23.

Fiscal deficit in the first 10 months of the last financial year was 58.9 percent of that year's target.

The Centre made an upward revision in its fiscal deficit target for 2022-23 in the 2023 Budget to Rs 17.55 lakh crore from Rs 16.61 lakh crore. However, with the size of India's economy this year set to exceed the Budget estimate, the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP is seen unchanged from the initial target of 6.4 percent.

The total revenue receipts for the April-January period stood at Rs 19.76 lakh crore, which is 81.3 percent of the revised FY23 budget estimate of Rs 24.32 lakh crore. In the comparable year-ago period, total receipts had hit 88.5 percent of the budget estimate.

The net tax revenue, for the 10-month period ending January 2023, stood at Rs 16.89 lakh crore, which is 80.9 percent of the entire fiscal year's target. In the same period of FY22, the net tax revenue collected was 87.7 percent of the annual target.

The total expenditure in this fiscal so far, till January, came in at Rs 31.67 lakh crore, which amounts to 75.7 percent of the FY23 target. In the corresponding period of FY22, total expenditure was 74.5 percent of the full-year target.

Through disinvestments, the government has raised Rs 31,123 crore between April and January, which is 62 percent of the fiscal year's revised target of Rs 50,000 crore.

The government's market borrowings in the April-January period climbed to Rs 10.05 lakh crore, which is 84 percent of the FY23 target. In the comparable year-ago period, it stood at 86 percent of the full-year target.

Capital expenditure during April-January stood at Rs 5.69 lakh crore, as compared to Rs 4.41 lakh crore in the year-ago period. The capex so far is 78.3 percent of the full-year target, as against 73.4 percent in the year-ago period.

The data on the Union government's finances for the first 10 months of the current fiscal comes nearly a month after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Budget for 2023-24. The government has laid major emphasis on accelerating capital expenditure as the cornerstone for driving growth in the next fiscal. This was reflected in Sitharaman's announcement to increase capex for FY24 by 33 percent to Rs 10 lakh crore.