The Centre’s fiscal deficit was 4.8% of GDP in 2024-25; its liabilities were 57.6% at the end of 2023-24.

That is RBI’s figure for the last year with actual accounts. Taxes of the Centre and States together were 18.0% of GDP in 2023-24. The deficit has ranged from 2.5% in 2007-08 to 9.2% in 2020-21, and the Centre’s revenue deficit was 1.7% in 2024-25. The 2026-27 Budget Estimate puts the fiscal deficit at ₹17.0 lakh crore, 4.3% of the GDP the Budget assumes.

What the Centre borrows

The fiscal deficit is what the Centre borrows in a year; the revenue deficit is the part of it that finances the Centre’s day-to-day spending, not assets. In 2024-25 they were 4.8% and 1.7% of GDP. The Budget Estimate for 2026-27 is ₹17.0 lakh crore for the fiscal deficit and ₹5.9 lakh crore for the revenue deficit, against a Revised Estimate of ₹15.6 lakh crore for 2025-26.

What it owes, and what is collected

The Centre’s outstanding liabilities, which include market loans, small savings and external debt, were 57.6% of GDP at the end of 2023-24. They were lowest at 49.5% in 2017-18 and highest at 66.9% in 2002-03. The States’ liabilities were 28.1% and the two together 82.1%, which is less than the sum because the Centre’s loans to States are counted once. Taxes of the Centre and States combined have ranged from 13.0% of GDP in 1998-99 to 18.0% in 2023-24.

Where the money goes

Interest payments took 3.4% of GDP in 2024-25, against 2.3% in 1984-85, and the 2026-27 Budget Estimate is 3.6%. Subsidies took 1.3% and capital outlay, spending on assets, 2.6%.

Where the Centre’s receipts come from

Of the Centre’s ₹53.1 lakh crore in total receipts in the 2026-27 Budget, personal income tax is ₹9.2 lakh crore and corporation tax ₹7.8 lakh crore. Personal income tax first exceeded corporation tax in 2020-21. GST, introduced in 2017-18, is ₹6.0 lakh crore.

What this can and cannot tell you

The deficit, liability and spending ratios are RBI’s own, with the Revised and Budget Estimates for the last two years, which are plans and projections, not what was collected or spent, and they are shown as provisional. The tax ratio is worked out here and stops at 2023-24, the last year for which GDP is a full estimate on MoSPI’s 2011-12 base. We recalculated the deficit and liability ratios from the rupee amounts and MoSPI’s GDP, and they match RBI’s within a hundredth of a point from 2011-12. The Centre’s liabilities are a stock at the end of the year and include small savings and other accounts as well as market loans, so they are wider than the debt figure in a Budget speech. External liabilities are valued at the exchange rate of the time.

The States are not included in the deficits or liabilities here. Their taxes are included in the combined tax figure. For borrowing costs and household debt, seeborrowing costs and household debt.

How this is worked out

Taxes of the Centre and States combined as a share of GDP at current prices on the 2011-12 base, each period's value of the first divided by the second, times 100.

Where the numbers come from

• Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy, Table 86: Key Deficit Indicators of the Central Government

  • Fetched automatically

  Reserve Bank of India. Retrieved 29 September 2026. Source page.

  • Reserve Bank of India
  • Budget documents of the Government of India
  • RBI's table was dated Jul 31, 2026. Where RBI shows no figure for a year, the year is left out.

• Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy, Table 100: Direct and Indirect Tax Revenues of Central and State Governments

  • Fetched automatically

  Reserve Bank of India. Retrieved 29 September 2026. Source page.

  • Reserve Bank of India
  • Budget documents of the Government of India and the State Governments
  • RBI's table was dated Jul 31, 2026. Where RBI shows no figure for a year, the year is left out.

• National Accounts Statistics, back series, 1950-51 to 2011-12

  • Fetched automatically

  Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). Retrieved 29 September 2026. Source page.

  • MoSPI National Accounts Division
  • Where a year has several estimates, the latest in the file is shown. Estimates before the third revision are flagged provisional.
  • Each base year is a separate series; the bases are not joined.

• National Accounts Statistics, base 2011-12, later replaced by 2022-23

  • Fetched automatically

  Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). Retrieved 29 September 2026. Source page.

  • MoSPI National Accounts Division
  • Where a year has several estimates, the latest in the file is shown. Estimates before the third revision are flagged provisional.
  • Each base year is a separate series; the bases are not joined.

• Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy, Table 240: Select Debt Indicators of Central and State Governments (As Percentage to GDP)

  • Fetched automatically

  Reserve Bank of India. Retrieved 29 September 2026. Source page.

  • Reserve Bank of India
  • Budget documents of the Government of India
  • State Governments' budget documents
  • RBI's table was dated Jul 31, 2026. Where RBI shows no figure for a year, the year is left out.

• Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy, Table 87: Central Government Receipts - Major Components

  • Fetched automatically

  Reserve Bank of India. Retrieved 29 September 2026. Source page.

  • Reserve Bank of India
  • Budget documents of the Government of India
  • Finance Accounts (various issues)
  • RBI's table was dated Jul 31, 2026. Where RBI shows no figure for a year, the year is left out.

• Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy, Table 237: Select Fiscal Indicators of the Central Government (As Percentage to GDP)

  • Fetched automatically

  Reserve Bank of India. Retrieved 29 September 2026. Source page.

  • Reserve Bank of India
  • Budget documents of the Government of India
  • RBI's table was dated Jul 31, 2026. Where RBI shows no figure for a year, the year is left out.