India's Apr-Oct fiscal deficit tops 126% of full year target

Net tax receipts were 5.76 trillion rupees, down 15.7% from a year ago, while total expenditure was 16.6 trillion rupees, the data showed.

The deficit is predicted to exceed 8% of GDP in the 2020/21 fiscal year that ends in March 2021, economists said, from initial government estimates of 3.5%, mainly due to a sharp economic contraction triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

($1 = 73.9273 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; editing by John Stonestreet)