Fiscal Deficit: India’s April-August fiscal deficit passes 109% of full year budget target – Times of India

NEW DELHI: India’s fiscal deficit in the five months to end August stood at Rs 8.7 lakh crore ($117.98 billion), or 109.3% of the budgeted target for the current fiscal year, government data showed on Wednesday.
Net tax receipts were Rs 2.84 lakh crore, while total expenditure was Rs 12.5 lakh crore, the data showed, indicating the government was facing a fall in tax receipts amid a rise in spending to combat the impact of the coronavirus.
The deficit is predicted to exceed 8% of GDP in the 2020/21 fiscal year that began in April, economists said, from initial government estimates of 3.5%, mainly due to a sharp economic contraction triggered by the pandemic.