Fiscal deficit for 2020-21 was at 9.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), lower than 9.5 per cent estimated by the Finance Ministry in the revised Budget estimates, according to the data of the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). 

Unveiling the revenue-expenditure data of the Union government for 2020-21, the CGA on Monday said that the revenue deficit at the end of the financial year was 7.42 per cent. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit works out to be Rs 18,21,461 crore. 

For FY21, the government had initially pegged the fiscal deficit at Rs 7.96 lakh crore or 3.5 per cent of the GDP in the Union Budget presented in February 2020. In the revised estimates in the Union Budget 2021-22, the government had forecast a higher fiscal deficit of 9.5 per cent of the GDP or Rs 18,48,655 crore for the financial year ended in March due to a rise in expenditure on account of the outbreak of COVID-19 and moderation in revenue during the financial year. 

Fiscal deficit had soared to a high of 4.6 per cent of the GDP in 2019-20, mainly due to poor revenue realisation.