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The Centre’s fiscal deficit for April-May this year stands at Rs 2.08 lakh crore, or 37.5 per cent of the 2015-16 Budget estimate of Rs 5.56 lakh crore, compared with 45.3 per cent in the corresponding period last year. On a year-on-year basis, the deficit was narrower due to higher non-tax revenue and lower non-Plan expenditure.
For the first two months of 2015-16, net tax revenue stood at Rs 19,889 crore, or 2.2 per cent of the full-year Budget estimate, compared with 2.9 per cent in the year-ago period. Non-tax revenue was Rs 32,472 crore, or 14.6 per cent of the full-year estimate, compared with 4.6 per cent for April-May 2014. Total receipts stood at Rs 52,361 crore, or 4.6 per cent of the 2015-16 Budget estimate, compared with 3.2 per cent for April-May 2014.
Non-Plan expenditure for April-May stood at Rs 2.01 lakh crore, 15.3 per cent of the full-year estimate, compared with 18.1 per cent for the first two months of the last financial year. At Rs 62,106 crore, Plan expenditure was 13.4 per cent, compared with 10.4 per cent last year.
Total expenditure for April-May this year was Rs 2.63 lakh crore, 13.4 per cent of the full-year estimate.
For 2015-16, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had set a fiscal deficit Budget estimate of 3.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared with four per cent in 2014-15. An earlier fiscal consolidation road map had set a fiscal deficit target of 3.6 per cent of GDP for 2015-16.
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By delaying that road map, Jaitley might have presented one of the most realistic Budgets in recent years, freeing some Rs 70,000 crore for additional public spending in infrastructure.
As reported by Business Standard earlier, the National Democratic Alliance government is looking to boost public investment-led infrastructure spending. Compared to April-September 2014, the Centre's capital expenditure for the first half of this financial year is likely to rise about 25 per cent to Rs 1.25 lakh crore.
