Nagaland Budget: Understanding Key Terms

This documents attempts to present broad aggregates of Budget 2021-2022. All receipts and expenditure as well as fiscal deficit, revenue deficit, primary deficit of the State Government of Nagaland is captured in this document. It also shows Grants from Central Government and other important programmes incorporated in Budget 2021-2022.

Revenue Deficit: The excess of disbursements over receipts on revenue account is called revenue deficit. This is an important control indicator. All expenditure on revenue account should ideally be met from receipts on revenue account; the revenue deficit should be zero. When revenue disbursement exceeds receipts, the government would have to borrow. Such borrowing is considered regressive as it is for consumption and not for creating assets. It results in a greater proportion of revenue receipts going towards interest payment and eventually, a debt trap. 

Public debt: Public debt receipts and public debt disbursals are borrowings and repayments during the year, respectively. The difference is the net accretion to the public debt. 

Ways and Means Advance (WMA): One of RBI's roles is to serve as banker to both central and state governments. In this capacity, RBI provides temporary support to tide over mismatches in their receipts and payments in the form of ways and means advances. 

Securities against small savings: The government meets a small part of its loan requirement by appropriating small savings collection by issuing securities to the fund. 

Miscellaneous receipts: These are receipts from disinvestment in public sector undertakings. Capital account receipts of the consolidated fund - public debt, recoveries of loans and advances, and miscellaneous receipts and revenue receipts are receipts of the consolidated fund. 

Fiscal Deficit: When the government's non-borrowed receipts fall short of its entire expenditure, it has to borrow money from the public to meet the shortfall. The excess of total expenditure over total non-borrowed receipts is called the fiscal deficit. (It is excess of total expenditure over revenue receipts and capital receipts after excluding borrowing).

Primary deficit: The revenue expenditure includes interest payments on government's earlier borrowings. The primary deficit is the fiscal deficit less interest payments. A shrinking primary deficit indicates progress towards fiscal health. The Budget document also mentions deficit as a percentage of GDP. This is to facilitate comparison and also get a proper perspective. 

Nagaland Budget 2021-2022 at A Glance

                                                                                              Rs Crore

Source: Budget At  A Glance  2021-2022, Government of Nagaland