Expressing concern over rising revenue deficit, the finance ministry's quarterly review on Thursday said fiscal deficit has gone up by eight per cent to Rs 41,681 crore (Rs 416.81 billion) in the first three months of this fiscal mainly due to higher government spending on interest, pension, elections and grants to states.

The deficit in the first quarter amounts to over 30 per cent of the Budget target of Rs 1,37,407 crore (Rs 1374.07 billion) for the entire fiscal, according to the review tabled in Parliament on Thursday.

Expressing concern over the fiscal position, the report said revenue deficit mounted to Rs 46,394 crore (Rs 463.94 billion), which is 61 per cent of Budget estimate of Rs 76,171 crore Rs 761.71 billion) for 2004-05.

Previous year, the revenue deficit was Rs 40,031 crore (Rs 400.31 billion), which was only 36 per cent of the estimate for 2003-04.

The government has targeted to restrict fiscal deficit to 4.4 per cent of GDP and revenue deficit at 2.5 per cent of GDP this fiscal.

"Government is committed to making all efforts to meet the intra-year fiscal performance targets, prescribed in Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act," it said.

The Centre expects higher revenues from education cess and 10 per cent service tax in the coming months, the report said, adding efforts are on to recover tax arrears.

"Robust industrial growth observed in first quarter indicates a positive outlook for growth, driven by both domestic demand and exports, and may augur well for a healthy revenue performance to contain the revenue deficit within the targeted level," it said.