Total receipts stood at 8.34 lakh crore rupees, while overall expenditure in April to June was at 9.70 lakh crore rupees. They were 27.1% and 20.4% of this fiscal year’s budget target.
Total receipts in year-earlier period was at 22.1% of estimate, while expenditure narrowed from 23.3% a year earlier.
India went to polls during the first quarter of this fiscal year.
Revenue receipts stood at about 8.30 lakh crore rupees, of which tax revenue was nearly 5.50 lakh crore rupees and non-tax revenue was 2.80 lakh crore rupees. Tax and non-tax revenues were 21.1% and 70.1% of the budgeted estimate. Tax revenue was wider than 18.6% of budget estimate in the last fiscal year, non-tax revenue swelled from 51.4% of budget forecast in the same period last year.Non-tax revenue jumped as the Reserve Bank of India announced a transfer of Rs 2.11 lakh crore as surplus to the central government. The dividend payout is more than double the amount budgeted from the central bank and state-run lenders.
India logged a revenue surplus of 40,819 crore rupees in the first quarter as revenue receipts were higher than revenue expenditure of 7.89 lakh crore rupees.
While announcing the federal budget for this fiscal year that started April 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman revised the fiscal gap aim down to 4.9%, well below the 5.1% budget gap pegged in the Interim budget. Sitharaman also pegged the fiscal deficit target at 5.1% for the next fiscal year.
In the Budget, The government stuck to its fiscal consolidation roadmap even as coalition parties demanded more funds from the Modi government and the middle class urged for tax relief measures.
The lower fiscal deficit target for 2025-26 was expected on hopes of strong tax collections, despite the government’s continued capex push that is crucial to shore up consumption and create jobs and help India achieve its aim to be world’s third largest economy by 2030.
On the expenditure side, New Delhi spent about 90,174 crore rupees on major subsidies such as food, fertilisers and petroleum. This was 24% of revised annual aim, tad wider than 23% of budgeted expenditure in the comparable period last year.