The fiscal deficit will overshoot to 3.5 % from the earlier estimate of 3.2 % in the current fiscal, ending March 31, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.
The target has been fixed at 3.3 % for 2018-19 as against the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act target of 3 %.
Expressing the government’s commitment to bring down the fiscal deficit, Mr. Jaitley said in his Budget speech that he has endeavoured to bring down the fiscal deficit from 4.1 % in 2014-15 to 3.9 % in the following year and further to 3.5 % in 2016-17.
Fiscal deficit has a bearing on sovereign rating of the country as well as the debt market.
FRBM Review Panel headed by former Revenue Secretary N.K. Singh had recommended debt to GDP ratio of 60 % by 2023 and fiscal deficit at 3 % for next 3 years.
