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The fiscal deficit for the month of April came in at about Rs 1.27 lakh crore, or 23 per cent of the full year budgeted estimate of Rs 5.56 lakh crore. This was higher than the 21.4 per cent of full year 2014-15 bugeted estimates in April last fiscal.
There were no tax receipts for the first month of fiscal year 2015-16. Rather, there were refunds amounting to Rs 2,813 crore. Non-tax revenue, however, came in at Rs 28,126 crore, or 12.7 per cent of the full year target of Rs 2.22 lakh crore, compared with 2.8 per cent for the same period last year.
Total receipts for the month were Rs 27,094 crore, or 2.2 per cent of the full year budgeted estimate of Rs 12.22 lakh crore, compared with 0.6 per cent for April 2014.
Non-plan expenditure for the month was Rs 1.19 lakh crore, or 9.1 per cent of the full year target of Rs 13.12 lakh crore. For April of last fiscal, it was 8 per cent of the full year target. Plan spending for April 2015 was Rs 35,160 crore, about 7.6 per cent of the budgeted estimates of Rs 4.65 lakh crore, compared with 4 per cent for the same period last year.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had budgeted the 2015-16 fiscal deficit to come in at 3.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), delaying the fiscal consolidation roadmap by a year and freeing up some Rs 70,000 crore extra for increased public spending in infrastructure.
It is a norm for successive governments that spending for the year is usually front-loaded, while most of the revenues come in the second half of the year.
For 2014-15, fiscal deficit was budgeted at 4.1 per cent of GDP, but came in at 4 per cent.
