New Delhi: Fiscal deficit touched 89.6 per cent of the Budget Estimates for 2014-15 to cross Rs 4.75 lakh crore at the end of October.
During the same period of the 2013-14 fiscal, the deficit was at 84.4 per cent of the BE.
Net tax receipts in the first seven months (April-October) of the current fiscal stood at over Rs 3.68 lakh crore, or 37.7 per cent of the BE, according to the data released today by the Controller General of Accounts.
Total expenditure of the government during the seven months was over Rs 9.62 lakh crore or 53.6 per cent of the estimates for the entire 2014-15.
Of the total expenditure, Plan spending was at Rs 2.67 lakh crore. Under non-plan head, it was Rs 6.95 lakh crore.
Revenue receipts were Rs 4.80 lakh crore or 40.4 per cent of the BE for the period.
Total receipts (from revenue and non-debt capital) of the government during the seven months were over Rs 4.86 lakh crore.
The data showed that the revenue deficit during the period was over Rs 3.72 lakh crore or 98.5 per cent of the full year target.
For 2014-15, fiscal deficit - the gap between government expenditure and revenue - has been pegged at Rs 5.31 lakh crore or 4.1 per cent of GDP, the lowest in seven years.
The fiscal deficit was over Rs 5.08 lakh crore or 4.5 per cent of GDP in 2013-14. It was 4.9 per cent in 2012-13.
The government had put in place a fiscal consolidation roadmap as per which the fiscal deficit has to be brought down to 3 per cent of the GDP by 2016-17.
To reduce the fiscal deficit to the 7-year low level, the government had last month announced a slew of austerity measures aimed at cutting non-plan spending by 10 per cent.
