India’s April-May fiscal deficit touches 11.8% of annual target- govt

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s fiscal deficit for the first two months in the financial year that started April 1 touched 2,102.87 billion rupees ($25.63 billion), nearly 11.8% of annual estimates, government data showed on Friday.

April-May net tax receipts were 2780.45 billion rupees or 11.9% of the annual estimate, lower than 3075.89 billion rupees in the same period last year, per the data.

Total expenditure during the period was 6259.78 billion rupees or 13.9% of the annual goal, higher than the government’s spending last year in April-May at 5857.74 billion rupees.

India aims to end the current fiscal year with a budget deficit of 5.9%.

($1 = 82.0567 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Shivangi Acharya and Sarita Chaganti Singh in New Delhi; Editing by Christina Fincher)

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