Mumbai:
The country''s fiscal deficit in the April-June quarter stood at Rs112,000 crore
($27.8 billion), or 74.5 per cent of the target of Rs151,000 crore for the full
year, the government said in a statement. The
government attributed the higher deficit to additional spending for acquiring
the Reserve Bank''s stake in the State Bank of India, the country''s largest lender. The
finance minister, however, had stated that the transaction involving the acquisition
of RBI stake in the State Bank of India was budget neutral and the jump in the
deficit - from Rs62,135 crore in the April-May period - was not a cause for concern.
During
the same quarter last year, the deficit was 52.3 per cent of the 2006-07 budget
target. The
government had, in June, paid RS35531 crore in cash to the Reserve Bank for a
59.73 per cent stake in State Bank of India. "This
transaction will be neutralised by realising equal amount of receipts from Reserve
Bank of India during the course of this financial year," the statement said. "After
excluding this transaction, the fiscal deficit up to June is Rs76,873 crore."
"The revenue situation is buoyant. The money spent on buying the SBI
stake will get neutralised once the book entries are done later in the year,"
the statement said. Total
receipts were at Rs67,496 crore of which taxes contributed Rs57,470 crore, the
statement said. Rs180,000
crore. Revenue deficit was at Rs68,646 crore until June-end, which is 96 per cent
of the full-year target.
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