India’s fiscal deficit on the higher side at 6.9% in FY22
NEW DELHI: The country’s fiscal deficit is projected to be higher at 6.9% this fiscal as against 6.8% estimated earlier, with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasising the need for stronger and sustainable growth through public investment.
The marginal rise in fiscal deficit for the current fiscal is against the expectations of the market and experts who expected slight decline in the numbers on the back rising tax collections.
“The fiscal deficit in 2022-23 is estimated at 6.4% of GDP, which is consistent with the broad path of fiscal consolidation announced by me last year to reach a fiscal deficit level below 4.5% by 2025-26. While setting the fiscal deficit level in 2022-23, I am conscious of the need to nurture growth, through public investment, to become stronger and sustainable,” Sitharaman, while presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament, said on Tuesday.
She also said the revised fiscal deficit, the gap between expenditure and revenue, in the current year, is estimated at 6.9% of GDP as against 6.8% projected in the Budget Estimates previously.
The fiscal deficit of the government for 2022-23 is estimated to be ₹16,61,196 crore. The Revised Estimates for 2021-22 indicate a fiscal deficit of ₹15,91,089 crore as against the Budget Estimates of ₹15,06,812 crore.
Finance minister Sitharaman stated that the outlay for capital expenditure in the Union Budget is once again being stepped up sharply by 35.4% from ₹5.54 lakh crore in the current year to ₹7.50 lakh crore in the 2022-23 fiscal.
Capital expenditure taken together with the provision made for the creation of capital assets through Grants-In-Aid to states, the ‘Effective Capital Expenditure’ of the central government is estimated at ₹10.68 lakh crore in 2022-23, which is 4.1% of GDP, Sitharaman said.
The total expenditure in 2022-23 is estimated at ₹39.45 lakh crore, while the total receipts other than borrowings are estimated at ₹22.84 lakh crore.
She further said that as against a total expenditure of ₹34.83 lakh crore projected in the Budget Estimates 2021-22, the Revised Estimates are ₹37.70 lakh crore.
Fiscal deficit in 2022-23 is estimated at 6.4% of GDP, consistent with the broad fiscal consolidation announced last year. NIRMALA SITHARAMAN, finance minister