India's April-June fiscal deficit at 17.9% of full-year target

India's fiscal deficit for April-June was Rs 2,80,000 crore ($31.96 billion) or 17.9% of the estimate for the financial year ending March 31, government data showed on Thursday.

Total receipts stood at Rs 94.14 lakh crore i.e. 26.9% of this fiscal year's budget target.

Revenue receipts stood at Rs 9.13 lakh crore, of which tax revenue was Rs 5.40 lakh crore and non-tax revenue was Rs 3.73 lakh crore. Tax and non-tax revenues were 19% and 64% of the budgeted estimate.


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 expenditure stood at Rs 9.47 lakh crore by the end of June.

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. India’s fiscal deficit for FY25 stood at 4.8% of GDP, meeting the revised estimate.

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 51,252 crore rupees on major subsidies such as food, fertilisers and petroleum. This was 13% of the revised annual aim, marginally narrower than 14% of budgeted expenditure in the comparable period last year.