Govt's H1 fiscal deficit stands at 36.5 pc of full-year target: CGA data

New Delhi, Oct 31 (PTI) The Centre's fiscal deficit stood at 36.5 per cent of the full-year target at the end of the first half of FY26, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Friday.

The fiscal deficit was 29 per cent of the Budget Estimates (BE) of 2024-25 in the first six months of the previous financial year.

In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit, or gap between the government's expenditure and revenue, was Rs 5,73,123 crore in the April-September period of 2025-26.

The Centre estimates the fiscal deficit during 2025-26 at 4.4 per cent of the GDP, or Rs 15.69 lakh crore.

The government has received Rs 17.3 lakh crore, or 49.5 per cent of the corresponding BE 2025-26 of total receipts up to September.

The total receipts comprised Rs 12.29 lakh crore of tax revenue (net to Centre), Rs 4.66 lakh crore of non-tax revenue and Rs 34,770 crore of non-debt capital receipts.

According to the CGA data, over Rs 6.31 crore has been transferred to state governments as devolution of share of taxes by the central government during the period, which is Rs 86,948 crore higher than the previous year.

The total expenditure incurred by the central government stood at about Rs 23 lakh crore (45.5 per cent of the corresponding BE 2025-26).

Of the total expenditure, Rs 17.22 lakh crore was on revenue account and Rs 5.8 lakh crore on capital account.

Out of the total revenue expenditure, Rs 5.78 lakh crore was on account of interest payments and Rs 2.02 lakh crore towards major subsidies, the CGA data showed.

Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist at Icra, said a welcome 40 per cent spike in capital expenditure widened the Government of India's fiscal deficit to Rs 5.7 lakh crore or about 37 per cent of the BE during the first half of the fiscal from Rs 4.7 lakh crore in the year-ago period.

"As of now, we expect the typical trend of expenditure savings and higher than budgeted non-tax revenues to be able to absorb any shortfall in tax revenues, and do not foresee a material slippage relative to the Government of India's FY2026 fiscal deficit target of 4.4 per cent of GDP." PTI DP NKD NKD BAL BAL