JOIN USThe government is committed to meeting the fiscal deficit target of 3.3% for the current fiscal despite it being an election year, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.
He also said that there will not be a spending cut to meet the target as the government has enough alternative resources for planned expenditure.
Fiscal deficit stood at 3.53% of the GDP, broadly in line with the government’s revised estimates for 2017-18.
“Fiscal digit this year will be down to 3.3% and I can assure you that we are monitoring and working to ensure that fiscal deficit will be contained at 3.3% despite this being an election year, despite this being a year traditionally, and I will urge you to look at history be it 2013-14, be it 2007-08 or 2008-09, where fiscal deficits, microeconomic stability, good governance -- all were thrown to the wind for political exigencies,” Goyal said.
In the Union Budget 2018-19 presented in February, the government had revised the fiscal deficit target for 2017-18 to 3.5% from the earlier estimate of 3.2%. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit was Rs 5.91 lakh crore, or 99.5%, of the Budget estimates.
Addressing an event organised by industry body CII, Goyal said, the government will maintain stability in the economy and meet all economic parameters.
“You have a government today which is willing to say we will meet the aspirations of the people of India. We will meet our objectives of good governance. We will meet our objective for society to reach benefits of growth to poorest of the poor but we will also strengthen the Indian economy,” he said.
Asked if the rise in oil prices will have impact on the fiscal deficit, Goyal said this government has been very responsible, both in the management in the economy and management of prices.
“We have factored in what would be the increased oil price. Some of it were factored before the budget. Some of
it we have now. And with alternate sources......... without cut
in expenditure, we will be
able to meet the fiscal deficit,” he said.
On including petroleum products under Goods and Services Tax (GST), he said that’s really a decision that GST council has to take because at end of the day the government is not alone on that.
He said: “We have maintained the dignity of the GST council to have unanimous decisions and the good part is that the federal structure,
even though it has different political ideologies in different states, they have all worked together to ensure the success of GST and maybe in the next meeting there could be a discussion on this.