India's fiscal deficit touches 51.6% of FY16 estimates in three months

India's fiscal deficit during April-June touched Rs2,87,00- crore or 51.6 per cent of the budget estimates for the 2015-16 fiscal year ending in March 2016, official data released on Friday showed.

This is some improvement from the year-ago (April-June 2014-15) period when the country's fiscal deficit stood at 56.1 per cent of budget estimates.

The fiscal deficit - gap between expenditure and revenue - for the entire current fiscal has been pegged at Rs5,55,000 crore.

As per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts, tax revenue was over Rs1,01,000 crore or 11.1 per cent of the estimate.

Total receipts (from revenue and non-debt capital) of the government during the three months was about 11.8 per cent of the estimates for the full fiscal at over Rs1,44,000 crore.

Total expenditure of the government during April-June 2015-16 was nearly Rs4,31,000 crore or 24.2 per cent of the estimates for the entire fiscal.

This included plan spending of over Rs1,14,000 crore and non-plan spending of over Rs3,16,000 crore.

The revenue deficit during the three month stood at over Rs2,31,000 crore or 58.6 per cent of the estimates, CGA report stated.

For the 2015-16 year, the government aims to restrict fiscal deficit to Rs5,55,000 crore or 3.9 per cent of the GDP.

India's fiscal deficit was Rs5,01,000 crore or 4 per cent of GDP in 2014-15, down from 4.1 per cent projected in the revised estimate.