Government’s H1 fiscal deficit stands at 36.5% of full-year target: CGA data

The Centre’s fiscal deficit stood at 36.5% 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 (October 31, 2025).

The fiscal deficit was 29% 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 ₹5,73,123 crore in the April-September period of 2025-26.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist at Icra, said a welcome 40% spike in capital expenditure widened the Government of India’s fiscal deficit to ₹5.7 lakh crore or about 37% of the BE during the first half of the fiscal from ₹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% of GDP.”