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Updated July 5th, 2019 at 22:34 IST

Fiscal deficit target of 3.3% realistic: Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg

Dismissing apprehension over meeting fiscal deficit target of 3.3 percent of the GDP, the Finance Ministry on Friday said the lower target is realistic as the government is expecting net additional revenue of Rs 6,000 crore over the interim Budget estimates.

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Dismissing apprehension over meeting fiscal deficit target of 3.3 percent of the GDP, the Finance Ministry on Friday said the lower target is realistic as the government is expecting net additional revenue of Rs 6,000 crore over the interim Budget estimates.

The government in the interim Budget in February had projected a fiscal deficit of 3.4 percent for the current fiscal. Several critics including some rating agencies have doubted prospects of meeting this ambitious fiscal deficit target.

Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg in a customary briefing post Budget said, "On the revenue side as compared to actual of 2018-19, direct taxes are expected to increase by 17.5 percent, indirect taxes are going up by only 15 percent. This is very realistic targets in our judgment. On the non-tax side, there is also an increase as we are expecting better dividends."

READ: Union Budget 2019 | What Is Fiscal Deficit? Here's All You Need To Know About It Ahead Of Nirmala Sitharaman's Maiden Budget Speech

On the expenditure side, he said, it is more or less the interim Budget only with an increase of Rs 2,000 crore."All these put together gives us a saving of Rs 6,000 crore as compared to the interim Budget that brings down fiscal deficit from 3.4 percent to 3.3 percent. 

"Some concern raised that outside Budget there might be borrowing even there, there is the reduction. The fully serviced bonds, it has been brought down from Rs 64,000 crore to Rs 56,000-57,000 crore...so the number is reasonable," he said.

In the full Budget for 2019-20, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a reduction in the fiscal deficit target.

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"The fiscal deficit this year is 3.3 percent brought down from 3.4 percent," she said while presenting Budget in the Lok Sabha.

Fiscal deficit is the difference between expenditure and revenue. Earlier in the day, Moody's said there are risks of India missing 3.3 percent fiscal deficit target for the current financial year if tax revenue falls short of the projection

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Published July 5th, 2019 at 20:54 IST

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