India’s Fiscal Deficit At 85.8% Of FY25 Target In April-February

The Union government's fiscal deficit reached 85.8% of the budgeted target by the end of the first 11 months of fiscal 2025.

The gap between expenditure and revenue stood at Rs 13.46 lakh crore from April to February, against the full-year target of Rs 15.69 lakh crore, according to provisional data released on Friday by the Controller General of Accounts. In the same period last year, the fiscal deficit was Rs 82.8 lakh crore.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget 2025 speech on Feb. 1, set a fiscal deficit target of 4.8% of GDP for the ongoing fiscal. The government had initially projected a 4.9% deficit in July, as part of its fiscal consolidation efforts. This marked an improvement from the previous fiscal's target of 5.6% of GDP.

The fiscal deficit was supported by the Reserve Bank of India's record dividend transfer and a reduction in capital expenditure. The RBI paid Rs 2.1 lakh crore as dividend to the government for the fiscal 2024, the highest surplus on record.

The government's total expenditure for the first 11 months of the current fiscal stood at Rs 38.93 lakh crore, or 82.5% of the annual estimate, compared to Rs 37.47 lakh crore in the same period last year.

Capital expenditure from April to February reached Rs 8.11 lakh crore, accounting for 82.5% of the full-year target, marginally higher than Rs 8.05 lakh crore from a year earlier. The decline in early-month spending was mainly due to the Lok Sabha elections.

The revenue deficit for the period stood at Rs 5.72 lakh crore, or 93.8% of the annual target, compared to Rs 7.31 lakh crore a year ago.

Non-tax revenue by February 2025 totalled Rs 4.9 lakh crore, reaching 92.9% of the budget estimate of Rs 5.31 lakh crore for the fiscal.