India’s Apr-Oct fiscal deficit tops 126pc of full year target

NEW DELHI: India’s federal fiscal deficit in the seven months to end-October stood at 9.53 trillion rupees ($128.9 billion), or 126.7pc of the budgeted target for the whole fiscal year, government data showed on Friday.

Net tax receipts were 5.76 trillion rupees, down 15.7pc from a year ago, while total expenditure was 16.6 trillion rupees, the data showed.

The deficit is predicted to exceed 8pc of GDP in the 2020/21 fiscal year that ends in March 2021, economists said, from initial government estimates of 3.5pc, mainly due to a sharp economic contraction triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

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