At a time when the country is faced with a widening fiscal deficit due to a dip in revenue and growth in expenditure, the Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, on Saturday highlighted the need for prudent fiscal deficit management.
“We cannot allow our fiscal deficit to go beyond a certain limit. We need to manage our receipts and payments so that our fiscal deficits, sovereign borrowings and debts are within manageable limits,” Mr Mukherjee said inaugurating the new administrative building of the Income Tax Department here on Saturday.
The Union Government's fiscal deficit has already touched about 85.6 per cent of the Budget target during the first eight months of this fiscal. There is apprehension that fiscal deficit is likely to be much above the budgeted 4.6 per cent this year.
India should draw lessons from the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, Mr Mukherjee said. “We need to learn some lessons from the Euro Zone crisis where sovereign fiscal deficits of some have surpassed 100 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP). We cannot insulate ourselves from what is happening in the global economy, but a prudent fiscal deficit management is the need of the hour,” he said.