Centre's April-January fiscal deficit touches 58.9% of full-year target

Revenue expenditure was Rs 23.68 trillion, or 74.7% of RE compared with 71.6%

The Centre’s fiscal deficit for April-January FY22 came in at Rs 9.38 trillion, or 58.9 per cent of full-year Revised Estimates, compared with 66.8 per cent for the same period last year, on the back of higher tax proceeds, official data showed on Monday.

In her Union Budget 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had revised the fiscal deficit target to 6.9 per cent of nominal GDP from Budget Estimate (BE) of 6.8 per cent. However, if the Centre gets higher than expected proceeds from the LIC initial public offering (IPO), then the BE target can be met. For FY23, the fiscal