Fiscal deficit at 55% of annual target at Dec-end

New Delhi: The Union government's fiscal deficit touched Rs 9.82 lakh crore or 55 per cent of the annual Budget target at December-end 2023, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Wednesday.

In the corresponding period last year, the deficit was at 59.8 per cent of the budget estimates of 2022-23. For 2023-24, the fiscal deficit of the government is estimated to be at Rs 17.86 lakh crore or 5.9 per cent of the GDP. The CGA said the net tax revenue receipts stood at 17.29 lakh crore or 74.2 per cent of the full-year target at December-end 2023. During the year-ago period, the net tax collection was 80.4 per cent of that year's target.

The central government's total expenditure during the April-December period worked out at Rs 30.54 lakh crore or 67.8 per cent of the current year's budget estimates (BE). In the nine months through December 2022, the expenditure was 71.4 per cent of the BE.