Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India will be able to restrict the fiscal deficit below the budgeted level of 3.3% of GDP in Current financial year (FY19) as compared to 3.53% in last financial year (FY18). He said ‘There is a perception that fiscal deficit will not be met, but I feel, that we will actually do better than our budgeted fiscal deficit’.
Fiscal deficit, which is the difference between revenue and expenditure, stood at Rs 3.45 lakh crore during the first two month (April-May), or 55.3% of the budgeted target for the FY19. The total receipts -- from revenue and non-debt capital -- during the fiscal's initial two months were Rs 1.27 lakh crore, or 7% of the estimates for the current financial year. Total expenditure -- incurred on revenue and capital -- during the April-May period was Rs 4.72 lakh crore, or at 19.4% of the entire fiscal’s estimate.
Besides, he highlighted the revenues from Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the current fiscal is expected to exceed Rs 13 lakh crore as the full benefits of electronic way of e-way bill starts flowing in. In the first year of GST in 2017-18, the government had earned Rs 7.41 lakh crore from the tax since its rollout in July. The average monthly collection was Rs 89,885 crore. In the current financial year, the collections in April touched a record Rs 1.03 lakh crore, followed by Rs 94,016 crore in May and Rs 95,610 crore in June.