India's April-August fiscal deficit at 27% of full-year target

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's fiscal deficit for April-August was 4.35 trillion rupees ($51.93 billion), or 27% of the estimate for the financial year, government data showed on Monday.

Net tax receipts for the period were 8.74 trillion rupees, or 34% of the annual target, compared with 8.04 trillion rupees for the same period last year, according to the data.

Total government expenditure during the period was 16.52 trillion rupees, or about 34% of the annual goal, lower than the 16.72 trillion rupees in the same period last year.

The government's spending has been lower due to general elections.

For the first five months, the government's capital expenditure or spending on building physical infrastructure was 3.01 trillion rupees, or 27% of the annual target, against 3.74 trillion rupees for the same period a year earlier.

The Indian government has pegged its fiscal deficit target to 4.9% of the gross domestic product in its latest budget, compared with 5.6% in the last fiscal year.

($1 = 83.7740 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nikunj Ohri; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)