India’s April-January Fiscal Deficit at 64 per cent of full year target

NEW DELHI — The Central government’s fiscal deficit for the 10-month period from April 2023 to January 2024 of the current financial year stood at INR 11.03 lakh crore, data released by the Controller General of Accounts on Thursday showed.

This works out to 63.6 per cent of the revised estimate of INR 17.35 lakh crore for the full year, indicating that the government expenditure was within the targeted range of fiscal prudence. The original budget estimate was INR 17.87 lakh crore.

The fiscal deficit in April 2022-January 2023 was 67.8 per cent of the target for 2023-24.

In January, the Centre’s fiscal deficit stood at INR 1.2 lakh crore, nearly 40 per cent lower than the same month last year, due to the robust growth in tax collections.

The Central government’s net tax collections – were up 13 per cent year-on-year at INR 1.50 lakh crore in January on the back of a 63 per cent increase in corporate tax collections and 17 per cent rise in personal income tax.