With less than a month to go for fiscal year 2017-18 to end, the Centre is keeping a tight check on its finances and closely monitoring both expenditure outgo and revenue receipts on a daily basis.

The daily updates will be issued till March 31 and would include tax and non-tax receipts, and disinvestment proceeds.

“This is an exercise to mainly ensure there are no mismatches towards the end of the financial year and that all targets are met. The Centre’s financial position is very comfortable and the fiscal deficit will easily be met,” says a government official, who added that it is a fairly routine activity.

While expenditure is on track, officials saytax revenues may even see an improvement over the Revised Estimates. Similarly, revenue from disinvestment of public sector undertakings which has been pegged at ₹1-lakh crore is also on expected lines, they added.

Deficit target

Budget 2018-19 had relaxed the fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal to 3.5 per cent of GDP, from the earlier estimate of 3.2 per cent.

Also, the Revised Estimate for the Centre’s tax revenue was raised to ₹12.69-lakh crore in 2017-18, from the Budget Estimate of ₹12.27-lakh crore.

The total proceeds from disinvestment in 2017-18 is currently estimated at ₹92,505.69 crore.

Meanwhile, to avoid the rush of expenditure in the last few weeks of the fiscal, the Controller General of Accounts has stressed that the restrictions on the last quarter and last month spending have to be adhered to.

According to the General Financial Rules, expenditure in the last quarter by government ministries and departments is restricted to 33 per cent of the full-year allocation, and in the last month, it is capped at 15 per cent.

With a focus on spending, the Centre’s fiscal deficit had been reasonably high. By January, it had crossed the Budget Estimate by nearly 14 per cent to ₹6.76-lakh crore.

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