India's fiscal deficit widened further in December amid concerns that the country would breach its budgeted target for the third straight year.
The gap between the government's revenue and expenditure widened to Rs 9.31 lakh crore as of December, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts. That's 132.4 percent of the budgeted estimate of Rs 7.04 lakh crore for 2019-20. The deficit stood at 114.8 percent of the target in November.
Capital expenditure stood at Rs 2.55 lakh crore as of December 2019. That's 75.6 percent of the Rs 3.38-lakh-crore estimate.
Other Highlights:
- Revenue receipt stood at 58.4 percent of the budgeted target of Rs 19.6 lakh crore.
- Tax revenue stood at 54.9 percent of the budgeted target of Rs 16.4 lakh crore.
- Non-tax revenue stood at 77.3 percent of the budgeted target of Rs 3.13 lakh crore.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present the Union Budget 2020 on Feb. 1, where she will announce the final fiscal deficit figure for the ongoing financial year and the government's target for the next year.
Earlier, former Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg had said India's headline fiscal deficit is likely to go up by Rs 1.3-2 lakh crore. As a percentage of GDP, this will take fiscal deficit to between 3.7 and 4 percent of GDP.
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