Rising expenditure:
New Delhi : India’s fiscal deficit at August-end touched 96.1 per cent of the budget estimate for 2017-18, mainly due to rise in expenditure. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit – difference between expenditure and revenue – was Rs 5.25 lakh crore during April-August, 2017-18, according to the data of Controller General of Accounts (CGA). During the same period of last financial year, 2016-17, it was 76.4 per cent of the target. For 2017-18, the government aims to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3.2 per cent of the GDP. Last fiscal, it had met the deficit target of 3.5 per cent of the GDP.
The CGA data showed that the government’s revenue receipts worked out at Rs 4.09 lakh crore during April-August period, which works out to be 27 per cent of the budget estimate (BE) of Rs 15.15 lakh crore for the whole year. In the comparable period last fiscal, revenue receipts comprising taxes and other items were 28 per cent of the target. As per the CGA data, the government’s expenditure had been increasing on sequential basis and totalled Rs 9.5 lakh crore at August-end or 44.3 per cent of the budget estimates.
Note ban brought over 1.5 cr in tax net
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday claimed more than 1.5 crore people thriving on “black money” came into the tax net because of the demonetisation which also helped detect undisclosed income of Rs 5,400 crore and raise the direction collection by 15.7% till September 18. He was speaking at a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Finance Ministry.
He said the number of taxpayers increased significantly from 4.72 crore in 2012-13 to 6.26 crore during 2016-17, primarily after the demonetisation. “Net collections up to September 18 in the current financial year rose to Rs 3.7 lakh crore, a growth of 15.7 per cent. The revenue collections in case of direct taxes rose to Rs 8,49,818 crore during 2016-17, rise of 14.5 pc.
