Fiscal deficit last month 66.5% of FY16 target

Total receipts for the period were Rs 3.63 lakh crore, or 30% of the full-year target of Rs 12.22 lakh crore

India's fiscal deficit for April-August was Rs 3.69 lakh crore, or 66.5 per cent of the full-year target of Rs 5.56 lakh crore. The fiscal deficit was Rs 3.98 lakh crore in the same period a year ago, about 75 per cent of the FY15 target.

The encouraging year-on-year trend was primarily due to receipts for April-August 2015. Total receipts for the period were Rs 3.63 lakh crore, or 30 per cent of the full-year target of Rs 12.22 lakh crore, compared with Rs 2.75 lakh crore, or 21.7 per cent in the year-ago period, government data released on Wednesday showed.

The net tax revenue for the first five months of 2015-16 was Rs 2.1 lakh crore, or 23 per cent of the full-year budgeted estimates, compared to 19 per cent in the comparable period of 2014-15.

The non-tax revenue for the period under review was Rs 1.26 lakh crore, or 61.2 per cent of the budgeted estimates, compared with 40 per cent in the same period a year ago. Non-debt capital receipts reached a staggering 21.6 per cent of full-year estimates, compared with only six per cent in April-August in the past year.

The total expenditure for April-August 2015 was Rs 7.32 lakh crore, or 41.2 per cent of the full-year budgeted estimates of Rs 17.77 lakh crore.

For the same period a year ago, the total spending was Rs 6.73 lakh crore, or 37.5 per cent of 2014-15 target.

The higher year-on-year spending came on the back of increased capital expenditure by the government, in line with its stated commitment of boosting public spending in infrastructure at a time when the private sector has little appetite for larger projects.

The total capital expenditure, Plan and non-Plan, for April-August was Rs 92,000 crore, the highest ever by some distance for the first five months going back to 1998-99, according to available data.

Non-Plan expenditure for April-August 2015 was Rs 5.45 lakh crore, or 41.6 per cent of the full-year budgeted estimate, compared with 40.6 per cent for the comparable period in the last financial year. Plan expenditure for April-August 2015 was Rs 1.87 lakh crore, about 40 per cent of the full-year target, compared with 31 per cent for the same period in FY15.