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Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg on Thursday expressed confidence that the Centre will meet its fiscal deficit target of 3.4 per cent in the current fiscal, despite some likely shortfall in indirect tax collections.
“We are reasonably confident of meeting direct tax target. There may be some shortfall in indirect taxes but we will make it up with savings,” he told reporters, stressing that the 3.4 per cent target is “safe”. His comments come with just a fortnight left for the current financial year to end.
The Centre’s fiscal deficit between April and January exceeded its full year estimate by 21.5 per cent to ₹7,70,845 crore, raising concerns on whether the target would be met.
There are also concerns that collections from the goods and services tax may fall short of the Revised estimate of ₹11.47 lakh crore for 2018-19.
It was originally Budgeted at ₹13.71 lakh crore for the fiscal.
When asked whether the Finance Ministry is hopeful of another rate cut due to low inflation, Garg said it will be decided by the Reserve Bank of India.
The RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee will meetbetween April 2 and 4 to decide on the policy rates.
Speaking on the sidelines of an IBA and FICCI conference, Garg said the Finance Ministry and the RBI will meet on March 26 to decide the borrowing calendar for the first half of 2019-20.
The Centre has a gross borrowing target of ₹7.1 lakh crore for the next fiscal and its net borrowing is estimated at ₹4.73 lakh crore.
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