April-January fiscal deficit at `9.8 lakh crore
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New Delhi: India’s fiscal deficit for the first 10 months (April to January) of FY 2025-26 was Rs 9.8 lakh crore, which works out to 63 per cent of the estimate for the full financial year ending on March 31, official figures released on Friday showed. Net tax receipts for April-January stood at Rs 20.94 lakh crore, up from Rs 19 lakh crore collected in the same period last year.
Non-tax revenue went up to Rs 5.57 lakh crore, from Rs 4.7 lakh crore in the same period of the previous year.
Total government expenditure was at Rs 36.9 lakh crore compared with Rs 35.7 lakh crore in the year ago period.
There was also an improvement in the quality of government spending as capital expenditure, which entails investments in infrastructure projects such as highways, ports and railways, shot up to Rs 8.4 lakh crore compared with Rs 7.6 lakh crore during the same period of the previous year. The rise in capex reflects the government’s continued focus on these big-ticket projects to boost growth and create more jobs in the economy.
