Though capital expenditure increased modestly in November, the fiscal deficit already reached 135 percent of Budget Estimate (BE) till November, owing to weaker revenues.

"Corporate taxes collections so far are only 27 percent of BE and income tax are only 37 percent of BE. The higher excise duties 74 percent of BE have provided some respite to government revenues. Meanwhile, GST (Goods and Services Tax) collections are also below the budget estimates of Rs 6.9 lakh crore," State Bank of India, said in a report.

There would be an overall shortfall in GST collection of Rs 1.44 lakh crore for Centre, which in turn limits the expenditure that the government can incur looking ahead, the report said.

The report said that states have borrowed 41.5 percent more than last year till now, though the gap between last year and this year’s cumulative revenue is narrowing as GST collections have improved.

"As per our projections, if 50 percent of the IGST (Integrated GST) collected is disbursed to sates by Mar’21, then state GST shortfall can narrow down to around Rs 25,000 crore after taking into account the full compensation cess," the report said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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Overall shortfall in GST collection Rs 1.44 lakh crore for Centre this fiscal: SBI report

On January 7, the central government projected the country's economy to contract by 7.7 percent in the current fiscal year 2020-21, as per the first advance estimates of gross domestic product released by the National Statistical Office

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