Centre's fiscal deficit in H1 touches 37.3% of full-year target

The Centre’s fiscal deficit for the first half (H1) of the current fiscal year (April-September of FY23) came in at Rs 6.20 trillion, or 37.3 per cent of the full-year Budget Estimate (BE) of Rs 16.6 trillion, according to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Monday.

This compares with a Budget balance of Rs 5.27 trillion, or 35 per cent of the full-year target for April-September of last year. The Centre is hopeful of keeping the fiscal deficit at 6.4 per cent of nominal GDP in FY23.

For H1, while capital expenditure outlay was strong compared to last year, net tax revenue showed a drop as a percentage of full-year target. However, as the chart