India's April-January fiscal deficit at Rs 9.81 lakh crore, narrows on-year to 63% of FY26 aim

India's fiscal deficit for the first ten months of this fiscal year through January stood at Rs 9.81 lakh crore, or 63% of annual estimates, government data showed on Friday.

The fiscal deficit narrowed from 74.5% reported in the comparable year-earlier period.

Total receipts stood at Rs 27.09 lakh crore, while overall expenditure in April to January was at Rs 36.90 lakh crore. They were 79.5% and 74.3% of this fiscal year's budget target.


Total receipts in the year-earlier period was at 76.3% of estimate, while expenditure narrowed from 75.7% a year earlier. Revenue receipts stood at Rs 26.52 lakh crore, of which tax revenue was Rs 20.94 lakh crore and non-tax revenue was Rs 5.57 lakh crore . Tax and non-tax revenues were 78.3% and 83.5% of the budgeted estimate.

While tax revenue was wider than 74.4% of budget estimate in the last fiscal year, non-tax revenue narrowed from 88.1% of budget forecast in the same period last year.

Non-tax revenue jumped as the Reserve Bank of India approved a dividend of Rs 2.69 lakh crore to the central government, up from Rs 2.11 lakh crore transferred last year.

This will help the central government reduce its fiscal deficit.

Revenue deficit was at Rs 1.96 lakh crore or 37.3% of the fiscal year's budget target, data showed.

While announcing the federal budget for this fiscal year that started April 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman set the fiscal deficit target for 2025-26 at 4.4%, in line with the Indian government’s commitment to narrow the budget gap to below 4.5% by fiscal 2026. The Finance Minster set the fiscal deficit target at 4.3% of GDP for 2026-27, reaffirming the government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation while continuing to prioritise capital spending to support growth.

The lower fiscal deficit target for 2025-26 was expected on hopes of strong tax collections, despite the government’s continued capex push that is crucial to shore up consumption and create jobs and help India achieve its aim to be world’s third largest economy by 2030.

On the expenditure side, New Delhi spent about Rs 3.55 lakh crore on major subsidies such as food, fertilisers and petroleum. This was 83% of the revised annual aim, narrower than 88% of budgeted expenditure in the comparable period last year.