Chidambaram confident on containing fiscal deficit within 4.8% of GDP of FY14

03 Jan 2014 Evaluate

Allaying concerns over the country’s fiscal deficit touching around 94 percent of the budgeted target in the first eight months of the current fiscal, Finance Minister P Chidambaram expressed confidence that country’s fiscal deficit would remain within the target of 4.8 percent of GDP in the current financial year. Chidambaram emphasized that government finances will improve in December on the back of advance tax receipts and the General Financial Rules, which restrict expenditure and would have a positive bearing on the fiscal deficit.

The recently released fiscal deficit data has raised concerns that India may well overshoot its ambitious fiscal deficit target. In the same period of previous fiscal, the country’s fiscal deficit was 80.4% of the budgeted target and the finance ministry was able to contain the deficit at 4.9% of GDP in the last fiscal year. However, containing fiscal deficit has now become a tough task for the government amid poor revenue realization and tardy progress of the disinvestment programme. The government has so far only managed to raise Rs 3,000 crore against the disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore. During the April-November period of FY14 gross direct tax collections rose 13.18% to Rs 3.68 lakh crore while indirect tax collections witnessed lower growth at 4.9% at Rs 3.07 lakh crore compared with Rs 2.93 lakh crore in the year earlier.

Meanwhile, it is expected that the government would go in for a massive cut of about Rs 1 lakh crore in planned expenditure to contain the fiscal deficit. The government has already taken a number of measures including banning government departments for holding meetings in 5-star hotels among others to cut government spending in non-critical areas.

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