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The Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in its latest data has indicated that the government's fiscal deficit in end-October touched 45.6 per cent of the full year Budget Estimate. In actual terms, the fiscal deficit -- the difference between expenditure and revenue -- was Rs 7,58,137 crore during the April-October period of 2022-23.

As per the CGA data, in the corresponding period last year, the deficit was 36.3 per cent of the Budget Estimates of 2021-22. For 2022-23, the fiscal deficit of the government is estimated to be Rs 16.61 lakh crore or 6.4 per cent of the GDP. The net tax revenue at Rs 11.71 lakh crore was 60.5 per cent of BE 2022-23. During the corresponding period of 2021-22, the tax revenue (net) was 68.1 per cent of that year's BE.

Data also stated that Central government's total expenditure during April-October works out to be Rs 54.3 per cent of BE 2022-23, higher than 52.4 per cent of BE in the year-ago period. The central government's total receipts, including non-tax revenue, stood at Rs 13.85 lakh crore or 60.7 per cent of the current year's BE. In the year-ago period, the total receipts had touched 64.7 per cent of BE 2021-22.