India: States’ fiscal deficit soars to INR4.93tr in FY16 – 24 Jun 2017

• Led by the most populous Uttar Pradesh and the largest Rajasthan, the gross fiscal deficits of all the states skyrocketed to INR4,93,360 crore in FY16 from INR18,790 crore in FY1991, according to the latest RBI data.
• According to the second edition of RBI’s statistical publication titled ‘Handbook of Statistics on States 2016-17’, which was released on 24 Jun 17, the gap is projected to improve to INR4,49,520 crore as per the budget estimates of the states for FY17.
• In fact, from FY01, there was not a single year when the western state had shown improvements in its macro numbers. In FY01 its fiscal gap stood at INR7,990 crore which almost doubled to INR15,150 crore in FY10 and further to INR18,320 crore in FY15.
• 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.

External Link : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/states-fiscal-deficit-soars-to-rs-4-93-trillion-in-fy16/articleshow/59296407.cms