India's fiscal deficit hit 92.4 per cent of budget estimates at July-end

India’s whooping fiscal deficit hit 92.4 per cent of the budget at July end, driven by the front loading of expenditure by several government departments.
 
According to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the difference between the expenditure and revenue was Rs 5.04 lakh crore for the April-June period of 2017-18 in absolute terms.     
 
The government had successfully met the deficit target of 3.5 per cent of the GDP in the previous fiscal and is aiming to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3.2 per cent of the GDP in the year 2017-2018. 
 
According to the CGA data, the government’s revenue receipts recorded an improvement during the April-June period to Rs 2.91 lakh crore, about 19.2 per cent of the Rs 15.15 lakh crore target for the whole year. Whereas, the revenue receipts for the same period in the previous year were 18.6 per cent of the target.
 
The CGA data also disclosed that the government’s expenditure had been on a rise on a sequential basis and aggregated to Rs 8.08 lakh crore at July end or 37.7 per cent of the budget estimates. Of the governmental expenditures, ministries of agriculture, consumer affairs, defence and railways saw a greater increase in their expenditures against the same period in the previous year.