The Centre’s fiscal deficit stood at Rs 9.76 lakh crore at the end of November, accounting for 62.3% of the full-year budget estimate for 2025-26, higher than the 52.5% recorded during the same period last year, government data released on Wednesday showed, PTI reported.For 2025-26, the Centre has budgeted a fiscal deficit — the gap between expenditure and revenue — at 4.4% of GDP, or Rs 15.69 lakh crore.According to data released by the Controller and Auditor General of India (CAG), total receipts up to November 2025 stood at Rs 19.49 lakh crore, or 55.7% of the corresponding budget estimate for the year.This included Rs 13,93,946 crore in net tax revenue to the Centre, Rs 5,16,366 crore in non-tax revenue and Rs 38,927 crore in non-debt capital receipts.The data also showed that Rs 9,36,561 crore was transferred to state governments as devolution of the Centre’s share of taxes during the period, marking an increase of Rs 1,24,498 crore compared with the year-ago period.Total expenditure incurred by the Centre till November amounted to Rs 29.26 lakh crore, or 57.8% of the budget estimate for 2025-26. Of this, revenue expenditure stood at Rs 22,67,700 crore, while capital expenditure was Rs 6,58,210 crore.Out of the total revenue expenditure, interest payments accounted for Rs 7,45,765 crore, while major subsidies amounted to Rs 2,88,333 crore.Commenting on the data, Aditi Nayar, chief economist at Icra, said the rating agency expects a shortfall of Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the Centre’s gross tax revenues in the current fiscal compared with the FY2025-26 budget estimate, PTI quoted.“Overall, we expect the potential miss on the taxes side to be offset by higher-than-budgeted non-tax revenues and sizeable expenditure savings on the revenue spending front. As a result, we do not anticipate fiscal slippage at the current juncture,” Nayar said.
