Fiscal deficit at 18.1 pc of Budget estimates in April

New Delhi (PTI) - The Centre's fiscal deficit in
April, 2011 worked out to be 18.1 per cent of the Budget
estimates as compared to 14.2 per cent in the year-ago period,
on account of less revenue collection and increase in non-plan
expenditure.
In absolute terms, fiscal deficit, or the gap between
overall expenditure and receipts, stood at Rs 74,611 crore in
the first month of the current fiscal, against Rs 53,993 crore
in the same period last financial year (2010-11).
The government has fixed a budget estimate of Rs 4.12
lakh crore as fiscal deficit for 2011-12.
In April, total revenue receipts stood at Rs 6,880 crore,
or 0.9 per cent, of the budget estimates, an official
statement said.
This is far below the 1.9 per cent achieved during the
first month of 2011. In April, the net tax receipts of the
government stood at Rs 3,774 crore and total expenditure at Rs
87,130 crore, it said.
Non-Plan expenditure of Rs 70,123 in April was 8.6 per
cent of the Budget estimate. In April last year, non-Plan
expenditure stood at 6.6 per cent of the Budget estimate.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his 2011-12 Budget
speech had pegged the fiscal deficit for the current year at
4.6 per cent. Speaking to media on Tuesday, he had exuded
confidence of achieving the target.
"This year also I will be able to keep the fiscal deficit
target," Mukherjee had said on a day, when data revealed that
fiscal deficit in 2010-11 was 4.7 per cent, lower than the
revised estimate of 5.1 per cent.
As per the latest data, the non-tax revenue in April
stood at Rs 3,774 crore.
Meanwhile, the revenue deficit, which is the gap between
revenue expenditure like salaries and revenue receipts, during
the first month of this fiscal stood at 19.7 per cent of the
budget estimates as compared to 18.3 per cent in April, 2010.
In absolute terms, revenue deficit stood at Rs 60,615
crore in the first month of 2011-12, against Rs 50,638 crore
in April, 2010.
The government contained its fiscal deficit at 4.7 per
cent of GDP during 2010-11, much lower than the revised
estimate of 5.1 per cent, on the back of higher-than-expected
realisation from auctioning of 3G and BWA spectrum.
The deficit finally stood at Rs 3,69,043 crore for the
fiscal ended March, 2011, constituting 4.69 per cent of GDP at
Rs 78,75,627 crore. This was 92 per cent of the revised
estimate of Rs 4,00,998 crore, showing an improvement on the
fiscal front.
The Centre also cut its revenue deficit, an excess of the
current expenditure over the current receipts, to 3.11 per
cent of GDP against the projected 3.4 per cent. It was lower
than even 3.2 per cent, according to the road map given by the
13th Finance Commission.