What is meant by Revenue Deficit? What are its remedies?

Meaning. Revenue deficit refers to the excess of total revenue expenditure of the government over its total revenue receipts. It is related to only revenue expenditure and revenue receipts of the government. It signifies that government's own revenue is insufficient to meet the normal running of the government. Simply put, when government spends more than what it collects by way of revenue, it incurs revenue deficit. Mind, revenue deficit includes only such transactions that affect current income and expenditure of the government. Symbolically:
Revenue Deficit = Total Revenue Expenditure - Total Revenue Receipts
For instance, revenue deficit in government budget for the year 2008-09 is र 55,184 crores (= Revenue expenditure र 6,58,119 crores - Revenue receipts of र 6,02,935 crores). It reflects government failure to meet its revenue expenditure fully from its revenue receipts. This deficit is to be met from capital receipts, i.e., through borrowing or sale of its assets. Given the same level of fiscal deficit, a higher revenue deficit is worse than a lower one because it implies a higher repayment burden in future, not matched by any benefit via investment.
Remedial measures. A high revenue deficit warns the government either to cut its expenditure or increase its tax and non-tax receipts. Thus main remedies are: (i) Government should raise rate of taxes especially on rich people and levy new taxes where possible. (ii) Government should try to reduce its expenditure and avoid unnecessary expenditure.