RBI: States’ fiscal deficit soars to Rs 4.93 trillion in FY16

The gross fiscal deficits of all the states skyrocketed to 4,93,360 crore Rupee in the last fiscal from the 18,790 crore rupee in the financial year 1991, according to the latest RBI data.

Most populous state Uttar Pradesh and the largest Rajasthan lead the list of states with highest deficit.

According to the second edition of RBI’s statistical publication titled ‘Handbook of Statistics on States 2016-17’, released on Saturday, the gap is projected to improve in the current fiscal.

It is estimated to be 4,49,520 crore rupee as per the budget estimates of the states for financial year 2017.

The publication follows the ‘one-indicator-one table’ approach and covers all sub-national statistics on socio- demographics, state domestic product, agriculture, industry, infrastructure, banking and fiscal indicators across the states over a period ranging from 1950-51 to 2016-17.

It also offers data on state-wise availability of power, per capita availability of power, installed capacity of power, and power requirement, length of national highways, roads and state highways, and railheads.

Know what is Fiscal deficit?

Fiscal deficit is defined as the excess of government’s total expenditure over total receipts excluding borrowings during a fiscal year.  It is an indication of the total borrowings needed by the government.

Some Important terms related to Budget