New Delhi, July 31 (IANS): India’s fiscal deficit up to last month during the current fiscal touched Rs 4.42 lakh crore or 80.8 per cent of the Budget estimates for 2017-18, official data showed on Monday. According to figures released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the deficit in the April-June period was 61.1 per cent of the Budget in the same period of last fiscal year. The 2017-18 deficit -- the difference between revenue and expenditure -- has been pegged at Rs 5.46 lakh crore, as compared to the deficit of Rs 5.34 lakh crore for the last fiscal. As per the CGA data, tax revenue during the period under review was Rs 1.77 lakh crore, or 14.5 per cent of the estimates, while total receipts, from revenue and non-debt capital, during the fiscal’s first three months, were Rs 2.09 lakh crore, or 13.1 per cent of the estimates for the current year. Total expenditure during the April-June period was Rs 6.51 lakh crore, or 30.3 per cent of the entire fiscal’s estimate. The revenue deficit during the period under review was over Rs 3.83 lakh crore, or 119.1 per cent, of the estimates. Eight core industries’ output slows down in June Production in India’s eight major industries slowed down during June, as the total output inched up by only 0.4 per cent as against a rise of 4.1 per cent in May 2017, official data showed on Monday. The Eight Core Industries (ECI) data which represents the output of major industrial sectors like coal, steel, cement and electricity grew by seven per cent in the corresponding month of 2016. “The combined index of ECI stands at 121 in June, 2017, which was 0.4 per cent higher compared to the index of June, 2016,” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in the summary report for the index of ECI. “Its cumulative growth during April to June, 2017-18 was 2.4 per cent.” The ECI index comprises 40.27 per cent weightage of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
