Fiscal Deficit is 55% WRT Government's yearly Target at Rs 9.82 Trillion for April-Dec Term

According to the most recent data released on Wednesday by the Controller General of Accounts, the fiscal deficit of the Centre reached 55% (or Rs 9.8 trillion) of the full-year target for the April to December period of financial year 24 prior to the presentation of the interim Budget for financial year 25. At 59.8% of the total budget, the fiscal deficit figure was somewhat less than Rs 9.9 trillion for the same period in the previous year. The administration wants to reduce the fiscal deficit from 6.4% of GDP last year to 5.9% of GDP by the end of this fiscal year, and to 4.5% of GDP by the end of the 26th fiscal year.

According to CGA data, the overall income receipts for the first three quarters of the current financial year were 77.6 percent of the target, compared to 80.3 percent for the same period last year. Compared to 80.4 percent the previous year, tax income this year reached 74.2 percent of the budget forecast. "ICRA does not anticipate that the budget deficit target for the financial year 2024—Rs 17.9 trillion - will be exceeded. Iif nominal GDP falls short of what the Union Budget had projected, the budget deficit might print at 6.0 percent of GDP,”  cautioned Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist at ICRA.

For the April–December fiscal year 2024, the government's capital expenditures reached 67.3 percent of the objective, with a 24% increase in capex during the third quarter. Capex more than quadrupled yearly to Rs 880 billion in December 2023, overcoming the two months prior's decline. In order for the government to reach the full-year capital expenditure objective for this fiscal year, around Rs 3.3 trillion must be spent in the fourth quarter of 2024. According to Nayar, ICRA anticipates that government capital expenditures will fall short of the fiscal year 2024 budget estimate by Rs 0.75 trillion, however this still represents a strong annual growth rate of 26%. In the April–December financial year 24, the Center's revenue expenditures amounted to 68 percent of the budget estimate, as opposed to 72.9 percent in the previous year. Due to significant subsidies and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), experts predicted that revenue expenditure will slightly exceed the budget estimate for the fiscal year 2024.