India’s Fiscal deficit for 2020-21 was at 9.3 percent or ₹18.21 lakh crore of the gross domestic product (GDP), lower than 9.5 percent estimated by the Finance Ministry in the revised Budget estimates, according to the CGA data.
Unveiling the revenue-expenditure data of the Union government for 2020-21, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Monday said that the revenue deficit at the end of the fiscal was 7.42 percent.
Net tax receipts were ₹14.24 lakh crore, while total expenditure was ₹35.11 lack crore, the data showed.
On February 1, the government revised its fiscal deficit target for F to 9.5% of GDP or ₹18,48,655 crore for the financial year 2020-2021, instead of its original target of 3.5% of GDP as the coronavirus pandemic led to lower tax collection and higher spending.
In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit works out to be ₹18,21,461 crore. For this financial year, the government had initially pegged the fiscal deficit at ₹7.96 lakh crore or 3.5 percent of the GDP in the budget presented in February 2020.
Fiscal deficit had soared to a high of 4.6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019-20, mainly due to poor revenue realisation.