The government’s capital expenditure for the April-December financial year 2024 period stood at 67.3% of the target, with the third quarter seeing an expansion of 24% in the capex
New Delhi, NFAPost: Ahead of the presentation of the interim Budget for financial year 25, the fiscal deficit of the Centre touched 55% (Rs 9.8 trillion) of the full-year target for the April to December period of financial year 24, the latest data by the Controller General of Accounts released on Wednesday showed.
The fiscal deficit number was marginally lower than Rs 9.9 trillion for the corresponding period last year, at 59.8% of the full-year target. The government is aiming to bring down the fiscal deficit to 5.9% of the gross domestic product by the end of this financial year from 6.4% last year, and to 4.5% of GDP by financial year 26.
The total revenue receipts for the first three quarters of the current financial year were 77.6 per cent of the target against 80.3% for the corresponding period last year, according to the CGA data. The tax revenue reached 74.2% of the budget estimate compared to 80.4% last year.
“ICRA does not expect the fiscal deficit target of Rs 17.9 trillion for financial year 2024 to be breached. However, a lower nominal GDP than what the Union Budget had pencilled in, could result in the fiscal deficit printing at 6.0 per cent of GDP,” said Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, ICRA.
The government’s capital expenditure for the April-December financial year 2024 period stood at 67.3% of the target, with the third quarter seeing an expansion of 24% in the capex. In December 2023, capex more than doubled on a year-on-year basis to Rs 880 billion, offsetting the outturn in the previous two months. The government needs to incur around Rs 3.3 trillion in the fourth quarter of financial year 2024 to meet the full-year target for capex this fiscal.
Nayar added that ICRA expects the government’s capex to undershoot the financial year 2024 Budget Estimate by Rs 0.75 trillion, which still implies a robust year-on-year growth of 26%.
The Centre’s revenue expenditure stood at 68% of the budget estimate in April-December financial year 24, against 72.9% last year. Experts said that the revenue expenditure is likely to mildly overshoot the financial year 2024 Budget Estimate, on account of major subsidies and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
The central tax devolution to the states rose to Rs 7.5 trillion during April-December 2023, 22.6% higher than Rs 6.1 trillion transferred during April-December 2022.
