The Hindu Business Line : Fiscal deficit for Apr-Aug higher

According to data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) here on Thursday, the Centre's fiscal deficit during April-August 2004 stood at Rs 52,509 crore, 20.8 per cent higher than the Rs 43,467 crore for the first five months of 2003-04. As against this, the fiscal deficit for 2004-05 — representing the gap between its total expenditures and receipts from both current and non-debt capital sources — was budgeted to rise by only 4 per cent to Rs 1,37,407 crore over the previous year's revised estimate of Rs 1,32,103 crore.

The revenue deficit — the difference between revenue expenditure and revenue receipts from tax and non-tax current receipts — for April-August 2004, at Rs 62,906 crore, has also been estimated higher than the Rs 60,769 crore figure for the corresponding period of 2003. The increase has been even more pronounced (from Rs 909 crore to Rs 7,418 crore) in the case of the primary deficit, which equals the fiscal deficit net of interest payments.

The Union Budget had, on the other hand, estimated the revenue deficit to fall to Rs 76,171 crore during 2004-05 (from Rs 99,860 crore in 2003-04), while providing for a marginal increase in the primary deficit from Rs 7,548 crore to Rs 7,907 crore. The actual numbers, however, seem to be going wide off the targets.

On the revenue side, the Centre's revenue receipts during April-August 2004 amounted to Rs 68,357 crore (Rs 63,698 crore), with high net tax revenues of Rs 45,721 crore (Rs 39,238 crore). However, non-tax revenue collections were lower (Rs 22,636 crore against Rs 24,460 crore). There was a similar drop in non-debt capital receipts as well (Rs 32,752 crore against Rs 37,774 crore) due to lower realisations from loan recoveries (Rs 32,565 crore versus Rs 36,676 crore) as well as disinvestment (Rs 187 versus Rs 1,098 crore).

As a result, total current and non-debt capital receipts during April-August 2004, at Rs 101,109 crore, were actually below the Rs 101,472 crore realised during April-August 2003. This, along with higher total expenditures (Rs 153,618 crore versus Rs 144,939 crore), has generated a higher fiscal deficit during the first five months of the current fiscal.

Within total expenditure, both non-Plan spending and Plan spending were higher at Rs 115,818 crore (Rs 108,737 crore) and Rs 37,800 crore (Rs 36,202 crore), respectively.