New Delhi: The fiscal deficit in the first month of 2015-16 was Rs 1.27 lakh crore or 23 percent of Budget Estimates for the whole financial year.
The fiscal deficit -- the gap between expenditure and revenue -- for the whole fiscal has been pegged at Rs 5.55 lakh crore.
The deficit during the April last fiscal was 21.4 percent of Budget Estimates.
For 2015-16, the government has put a fiscal deficit target of 3.9 percent.
The fiscal deficit was Rs 5.01 lakh crore or 4 percent of GDP in 2014-15, down from 4.1 percent pegged in the revised estimate. The revenue deficit was confined to 2.8 percent, beating the budget target of 2.9 percent for the last fiscal.
Revenue deficit refers to the shortfall in total government revenue realisation from the targeted figure.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley last week had said that the direct tax collection was likely to improve by 14-15 percent in the current fiscal and there was possibility of government improving upon the fiscal deficit target of 3.9 percent.
However, he had said that the government would prefer to increase expenditure on social sector schemes instead of improving its fiscal deficit target.
The data released by the Controller and Accounts General further revealed that the total expenditure of the government during April was Rs 1.54 lakh crore or 8.7 percent of the entire year estimates.
Of the total expenditure, plan spending was Rs 35,160 crore and non-plan was Rs 1,19,457 crore.
Revenue collection was Rs 25,313 crore or 2.2 percent of the estimate. It was 6.6 percent of the estimates in 2014-15.
Total receipts (from revenue and non-debt capital) of the government during the two months was Rs 27,094 crore or 2.2 percent of the total deficit.
The revenue deficit during the month was Rs 1,03,095 crore or 26.1 percent of the estimates, it said.
