Eighteen states targeted revenue surplus, 3 states targeted revenue deficit, and 7 targeted zero revenue deficit in FY 2024-25, according to a report on ‘State Finances 2024-25′ released by Comptroller and Auditor General of India K Sanjay Murthy on Tuesday.
“In FY 2024-25, 15 states were revenue-deficient while the rest 13 states were revenue surplus,” the report said.
Of the 18 states that targeted revenue surplus, 9 achieved the target, while Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Mizoram, and Telangana ended up being revenue deficit in 2024-25.
Seven states — Goa, Jharkhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh — targeted a zero-revenue deficit.
Among them, 4 states — Goa, Jharkhand, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh — achieved a revenue surplus, whereas Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu ended the year with a revenue deficit.
Of the 15 states that were revenue-deficient in 2024-25, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Punjab and West Bengal received Finance Commission revenue deficit grants.The report further said that if the indicative fiscal deficit target of 3 per cent of the GSDP, fixed by the Fifteenth Finance Commission for 2024-25, for states’ fiscal consolidation path is considered, then 18 states were above the target.
The aggregate revenue deficit of 15 revenue-deficit states, without netting revenue surplus of 13 states, stood at Rs 3,46,385 crore, which was 1.5 per cent of their combined GSDP. The net revenue deficit, after adjusting the revenue surplus in 13 states, stood at Rs 2,19,041 crore, 0.68 per cent of the combined GSDP of all 28 states.
“I hope that the publication on State Finances 2024-25 will serve as a useful evidence-based resource for governments, researchers, policymakers and citizens, enabling a deeper understanding of state finances and supporting informed fiscal decision-making,” CAG Murthy said.
The publication highlights the growing importance of states’ own tax revenues, which accounted for 50 per cent of the combined total revenue receipts of Rs 40.52 lakh crore across the 28 states in 2024-25.
State GST constituted more than 43 per cent of the combined states’ own tax revenues.
The combined budgetary expenditure of all states stood at Rs 51.20 lakh crore in 2024-25, equivalent to 15.78 per cent of their combined GSDP.
The decadal trend shows that salaries, pensions and interest payments continue to constitute a major share of revenue expenditure.
In 2024-25, such committed expenditure exceeded 43 per cent of the combined revenue expenditure of the 28 states, with significant inter-state variation – from 74 per cent in Nagaland to 29 per cent in Maharashtra.
As of March 31, 2025, the total liabilities of the states stood at Rs 90.51 lakh crore. All 28 states recorded a fiscal deficit.
A decadal analysis of deficit parameters shows that states as a whole, during the period 2015-16 to 2024-25, remained in revenue and fiscal deficit.
A substantial increase in revenue deficit took place in 2020-21, a year impacted by the Covid pandemic.
There has been a substantial increase in the fiscal deficit in 2020-21 and 2024-25.
The states which witnessed a substantial increase in fiscal deficit in 2024-25 as compared to 2023-24 were Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Tripura and Uttarakhand.