Will maintain 4.1% fiscal deficit target, says Jayant Sinha

New Delhi: The government is committed to containing fiscal deficit at 4.1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this fiscal, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said today.

“We are considering all options (cutting expenditure). We are very confident that we will be able to achieve fiscal deficit target of 4.1 percent in the current fiscal year,” Sinha said on the sidelines of an event here.

Recently, the ‘Mid-Year Economic Analysis 2015’ tabled in Parliament has also said the government is “committed to meeting the fiscal targets for FY 2015, despite the difficult odds engendered by a combination of.. factors”.

The government has targeted fiscal deficit of 4.1 percent of GDP for FY 15, down from 4.5 percent in the previous year and plans to reduce it further to 3 percent by 2016-17.

Asked whether, the government is considering relaxing fiscal deficit targets to give itself room to revive public investments, Sinha said, “We think it’s very important to demonstrate fiscal prudence that establishes our credibility globally as well. As of now, we are very much on road map and continue to pursue that.”

“Obviously we need to be able to find resources for public investments and kick start the investment sentiments and we are working very hard on that as well and also number of innovative things we intend to do.”

On whether the government is considering extending excise duty concessions for auto companies beyond December 31, the Minister said,“excise matter (for auto sector) is under consideration. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said lets wait till 31 December.”

PTI