The Centre’s fiscal deficit for the first seven months of the 2024-25 financial year reached 46.5 percent of the annual target, according to government data released on November 29.Â
In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit — representing the gap between the government’s expenditure and revenue — stood at Rs 7,50,824 crore during the April-October period, as per data from the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).Â
For the same period in 2023-24, the deficit was 45 percent of the Budget Estimates (BE).Â
The government had projected in the Union Budget to reduce the fiscal deficit to 4.9 percent of GDP in the current 2024-25 financial year, compared to 5.6 percent of GDP in 2023-24. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit target for the current year is Rs 16,13,312 crore.Â
Revenue-expenditure data for the first seven months of 2024-25 show that the net tax revenue amounted to approximately Rs 13 lakh crore, or 50.5 percent of the budget estimate for the year. At the end of September 2023, net tax revenue stood at 55.9 percent of the budget estimate.Â
The Union government’s total expenditure for the period from April to October was Rs 24.7 lakh crore, or 51.3 percent of the budget estimate, compared to 53.2 percent during the same period the previous year.Â
Of the total expenditure, Rs 20 lakh crore was in the revenue account and Rs 4.66 lakh crore was allocated to the capital account.Â
The fiscal deficit represents the difference between the government’s total expenditure and revenue, and serves as an indicator of the borrowing the government needs to undertake.
Meanwhile, India’s GDP growth slumped to its lowest level in seven quarters at 5.4 percent in the second quarter of FY25, as mining growth contracted to an eight quarter low and manufacturing and utility services took a hit. In the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting last month, Governor Shaktikanta Das forecasted 7 per cent growth for Q2.Â
The National Statistics Office on November 29 announced that the Q2 GDP stood at 5.4% down from 6.7% in the April-June quarter. As per the data shared by NSO, real GDP grew by 5.4% in the second quarter of the fiscal year 2024-25, a decrease from the growth rate of 8.1% in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.
The output of eight key infrastructure sectors expanded by 3.1 percent in October 2024, sharply down from a 12.7 percent growth registered in the same month last year, according to official data released today. On a monthly basis, the production growth of these sectors was higher than the 2.4 percent expansion recorded in September 2024.
The growth of core sectors — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity — was 4.1 percent during April-October this fiscal. It was 8.8 percent in the same period last fiscal. The eight core sectors contribute 40.27 percent to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) which measures overall industrial growth.
(With inputs from PTI)