New Delhi : Bettering its own financial targets, the government has contained the fiscal deficit at 4% of GDP for 2014-15 at Rs 5,01,880 crore. The revenue deficit has also been confined to 2.8 %, beating the budget target of 2.9 % for the last fiscal, the Finance Ministry said in a statement today.
The gross tax collection registered a growth of 9 % in 2014-15 and stood at Rs 12,45,037 crore.
The fiscal deficit target was set at 4.1 % by the the UPA government, but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said he was taking it as a “challenge” to meet this ambitious and “daunting target” set up by his predecessor P Chidambaram.
Fiscal deficit, the gap between the government’s expenditure and revenue, is lower than the downwardly revised estimate of 4.1 % provided by the Modi government’s first full Budget announced in February.
“As a result of prudent policies and commitment to fiscal consolidation, the fiscal deficit at the end of 2014-15, stands at Rs 5,01,880 crore which is 98 % of the projected figure in Revised Estimate for 2014-15. Fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP is 4.0 % as against the RE of 4.1 %,” the Finance Ministry said.
“Revenue deficit at the end of 2014-15 is Rs 3,58,306 crore which is 99 % of the projected figure in the RE 2014-15 and is 2.8 % of the GDP as against the RE of 2.9 %,” the statement added.
The Finance Ministry further said that the government is “firmly committed to the path of fiscal consolidation and this is a step forward”.
Devolution of tax collections to states at the end of 2014-15 was Rs 3,37,808 crore, which is higher by Rs 19,578 crore over the previous financial year.
The Non Tax Revenue stood at Rs 1,96,959 crore (90 % of Revised Estimate).
