Govt meets 3.5% fiscal deficit target in 2016-17

New Delhi: The government on Wednesday said it has achieved the fiscal deficit target of 3.5 percent of GDP in 2016-17.

"Fiscal deficit is 3.51 percent of GDP or Rs 5.35 lakh crore in 2016-17," the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) said while releasing the provisional accounts for the last financial year.

For 2017-18, the government aims to further bring down the fiscal deficit -- the gap between expenditure and revenue -- to 3.2 percent.

The CGA further said that revenue deficit during the last fiscal was 2.02 percent of GDP.

As per the provisional data, the fiscal deficit in April 2017 was Rs 2.05 lakh crore, which is 37.6 percent of the Budget estimate, as against 25.7 percent in the year-ago period.

Total expenditure of the government in April was Rs 2.42 lakh crore, or 11.3 percent of the full-year estimate.

Revenue collection was Rs 35,081 crore, or 2.3 percent, of the estimate.

Total receipts of the government -- from revenue and non-debt capital -- in April stood at Rs 36,529 crore.

The revenue deficit during the month was Rs 1,78,383 crore, or 55.4 percent, it said.

Revenue deficit refers to the shortfall in total government revenue realisation from the targeted figure.