FinMin Piyush Goyal expects fiscal deficit to be lower than 3.3% in FY19

He said the revenues from GST in the current fiscal is expected to exceed Rs 13 trillion as the full benefits of electronic way of e-way bill starts flowing in

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has said India will be able to restrict the fiscal deficit below the budgeted level of 3.3 per cent of GDP in 2018-19, which has hit 55 per cent of the annual target in the first two months of the financial year.

He said the revenues from Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the current fiscal is expected to exceed Rs 13 trillion as the full benefits of electronic way of e-way bill starts flowing in.

"There is a perception that fiscal deficit will not be met, but I feel, that we will actually do better than our budgeted fiscal deficit," Goyal told reporters here.

The government has budgeted to contain fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent of GDP in current financial year which began in April, lower than 3.53 per cent in 2017-18 fiscal.
 

Fiscal deficit, which is the difference between revenue and expenditure, stood at Rs 3.45 trillion during the April-May period, or 55.3 per cent of the budgeted target for the fiscal year 2018-19.

In the April-May period of 2017-18, fiscal deficit was 68.3 per cent of the budget estimate.

"By the time the year ends, GST revenues would cross Rs 13 trillion. We have not yet got the full benefits of e-way bill. So I feel there will be more improvement in revenues and some relief in taxes can be given," Goyal said.

In the first year of GST in 2017-18, the government earned Rs 7.41 trillion from the tax since its rollout in July. The average monthly collection was Rs 898.85 billion.

In the current fiscal, the collections in April touched a record Rs 1.03 trillion, followed by Rs 940.16 billion in May and Rs 956.10 billion in June.