The central government missed its revised estimate for net tax collections, which includes direct and indirect taxes, for 2024-25 by Rs 58,075 crore, data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Friday showed. As per the data, the Indian government collected Rs 24.99 lakh crore as net taxes in the last fiscal, 2.3 per cent lower than the revised estimate of Rs 25.57 lakh crore. However, compared to the previous year, the net tax collected by the Centre in FY25 was up 7.4 per cent.
The miss in the net tax collections – which is the tax accruing to the Centre after paying states their share from the gross tax revenue – was led by a Rs 9,747 crore shortfall in the excise mop-up, which came in at Rs 3 lakh crore as against the revised estimate of Rs 3.10 lakh crore. Direct taxes – which include corporate tax, personal income tax, and Securities Transaction Tax, among others – were around Rs 6,500 crore less than anticipated at Rs 22.30 lakh crore even though corporate tax collections exceeded the revised estimate by Rs 6,767 crore in FY25. Personal income tax collections, inclusive of Securities Transaction Tax and other taxes, were around Rs 13,000 crore lower than the revised estimate, while the customs duty mop-up was Rs 2,104 crore lower at Rs 2.33 lakh crore.
Fiscal deficit target met
Despite the miss in net tax collections, the Centre met its fiscal deficit target of 4.8 per cent of GDP for the year ended March 2025, with total expenditure during the year 1.3 per cent lower than the revised estimate of Rs 47.16 lakh crore.
The fall in expenditure during the year was because of a 2.6 per cent reduction in revenue expenditure, while capital expenditure exceeded the revised estimate of Rs 10.18 lakh crore by Rs 33,578 crore. The government’s capex picked up pace in the last four months of FY25 after a slow start in the beginning of the year that had made the government revise down the target. It had initially budgeted the capital expenditure for FY25 at Rs 11.11 lakh crore.
Higher-than-expected non-tax revenues also helped the Centre achieve the FY25 fiscal deficit target. At Rs 5.38 lakh crore, the Centre’s non-tax revenues were Rs 6,544 crore higher than the revised estimate.
Finances for April 2025
The CGA on Friday also released data on the central government’s finances for April 2025, which showed that capex in the first month of the new fiscal stood at Rs 1.60 lakh crore, up 61 per cent on year, accounting for 14.3 per cent of the full-year target of Rs 11.21 lakh crore.
The Indian government’s capex had got off to a slow start last fiscal due to the general elections, amounting to Rs 1.81 lakh crore in the first quarter – just Rs 21,261 crore more than what the Centre spent in April 2025 alone.
The fiscal deficit for April stood at Rs 1.86 lakh crore as against the estimate of Rs 15.69 lakh crore for FY26. As a percentage of GDP, the Centre is targeting a fiscal deficit of 4.4 per cent for the current fiscal.
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) record dividend of Rs 2.69 lakh crore for FY25, transferred to the government earlier this week, is likely to show the Centre’s finances in a very healthy state when data for May is released at the end of June. The RBI’s dividend makes up much of the Centre’s non-tax revenues, with the government having estimated in February 2025 that it would get Rs 2.56 lakh crore as dividend from the central bank and public financial institutions this year. The budget estimate for non-tax revenue for the current fiscal is Rs 5.83 lakh crore.
