May 15: Fiscal deficit is going up as revenue collection is minimal in comparison to the public expenditure.    
According to the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO), the government's expenditure exceeds revenue collection by Rs 250 billion as of May 14 in the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23).    
The public expenditure during this period was recorded at Rs 1047 billion while the revenue collection and grant received was equivalent to Rs 797 billion.    
The FCGO stated that the government spending in the last 10 months' period is equivalent to 58.41 percent of the annual budget appropriation. The government had brought budget of Rs 1,793.83 billion for the current fiscal year. Of this budget, the government has so far spent Rs 1047.76 billion.    
It is said the current expenditure is 66.49 percent, capital expenditure is 33.04 percent and the expenditure towards fiscal management is 58.79 percent as of May 14 of the current fiscal year.    
The budget under the current expenditure heading for the current fiscal year is Rs 1183. 23 billion and so far Rs 786.74 billion has been spent. Similarly, Rs 380.38 billion was earmarked under the development heading in the current fiscal year and of this amount, Rs 125.67 billion has been spent in the 10 months.    
Looking at the status of budget spending during this period, the budget spending under the fiscal management heading exceeds that under capital heading. Altogether Rs 135.3 billion has been spend towards fiscal management. The spending under the fiscal management heading is mainly for paying the principal and interest of public debt.    
The government has been able to collect only over Rs 756 billion in revenues so far until May 14 against the target of over Rs 1,403 billion for the current fiscal year. The figure of collected amounts is only 54.66 percent. Only two months are left for the current fiscal year to complete.

Similarly, more than Rs 4.8 billion worth of foreign grants has been received, which is only 8.66 percent against target of foreign grants worth over Rs 55.4 billion.    
So far, over Rs 159 billion has been collected in income taxes against more than Rs 173 billion during the same period in the previous FY.    
Also, over Rs 88.06 billion has been raised in taxes so far against more than Rs 90.6 billion during the same period in the previous FY.    
As of now, more than Rs 84.1 billion has been collected in excise duties against over Rs 83.8 billion during the same period in the previous FY. -- RSS