New Delhi: The Centre’s fiscal deficit for the first five months of the fiscal came in higher at Rs 5.98 lakh crore, or 38.1 percent of the full-year target, compared to 27 percent during the same period a year ago, the government data showed on Tuesday.
The widening of the fiscal deficit is owing to a sharp rise in capital spending and a decline in revenue. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit, or gap between the government’s expenditure and revenue, was Rs 5,98,153 crore in the April-August period of 2025-26.
As per the data released by Controller General of Accounts (CGA), 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 received Rs 12.82 lakh crore (36.7 per cent of the corresponding BE 2025-26 of total receipts) up to August 2025,” the CGA data showed.
“This comprised Rs 8.1 lakh crore tax revenue (net to centre), Rs 4.4 lakh crore of non-tax revenue and Rs 31,970 crore of non-debt capital receipts. “Rs 5.3 lakh crore has been transferred to state governments as devolution of share of taxes by the central government till August, which is Rs 74,431 crore higher than the previous year,” the CGA said.
The Centre’s total expenditure was Rs 18.8 lakh crore (37.1 per cent of the corresponding BE 2025-26). Of this, Rs 14.49 lakh crore was on the revenue account and Rs 4.31 lakh crore on the capital account. Out of the total revenue expenditure, Rs 5,28,668 crore was on account of interest payments and Rs 1,50,377 crore on account of major subsidies.
“The fiscal deficit figure shown in monthly accounts during a financial year is not necessarily an indicator of fiscal deficit for the year, as it gets impacted by a temporal mismatch between the flow of non-debt receipts and expenditure up to that month,” the CGA added.a
