Small slippage possible in fiscal deficit target: Basu

There is possibility of a "small slippage" in the 4.6% fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu today said. "4.6% (fiscal deficit) is the target. We are very keen on it, but a small slippage on that is a possibility," he told reporters here.

The government's fiscal situation has shown deterioration at the end of the first six months of the current financial year, mainly due to poor realisation of non-tax revenues. According to data from the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the central government's fiscal deficit went up to Rs 2.92 lakh crore or 71 per cent of the Budget estimates at the end of September, 2011. In the same period last year, the government's fiscal deficit, the gap between overall expenditure and receipts, was 35 per cent of the estimates. For the 2011-12 fiscal, the government has estimated a deficit of Rs 4.12 lakh crore or 4.6 per cent of GDP. "We are very keen on fiscal consolidation. We want to keep it as close as possible to 4.6 per cent," Basu said. The rise in the Centre's fiscal deficit is mainly on account of lower mobilisation of non-tax revenues compared to same period last year, when it had mobilised over Rs 1.08 lakh crore from 3G and BWA spectrum auctioning alone. The revenue receipt stood at over Rs 2.93 lakh crore during the six-month period against the Budget Estimate (BE) of Rs 7.89 lakh crore for the entire fiscal. This is 37.2 per cent of the BE. At the end of September, non-tax revenue collection has stood at 40.5 per cent of budget estimates, compared to 111.3 per cent in the same period a year ago. PTI RSN BKS PPB TVS