Fiscal Deficit Breaches Full-Year Target Within Four Months

India's fiscal deficit crossed the annual target for 2020-21, just four months into the fiscal year, government data showed on Monday. According to the data, the fiscal deficit at the end of July stood at Rs 8.21 lakh crore, 103.1 per cent of the budgeted target for this financial year. Net tax receipts came at Rs 2.03 lakh crore while expenditure was Rs 10.05 lakh crore, according to the data. Economists quoted by news agency Reuters have predicted fiscal deficit to cross 7.5 per cent of the GDP in 2020-21, as against the government's budgeted estimate of 3.5 per cent.

In June, the fiscal deficit had touched record levels for the first quarter (April-June), reaching 83.2 per cent of the full-year target within the first three months of the financial year itself.

India's fiscal deficit has been shooting up due to poor tax collections and front-loaded spending by the government in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.