Budget 2018: 3.3% fiscal deficit next year is more realistic, says Deepak Parekh

In an interview with CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan, William Foster, VP-Sovereign Risk Group at Moody's Investors Service, Ravi Bhatia, Director-Sovereign Ratings at S&P Ratings Services, Sumant Sinha, Chairman & CEO of ReNew Power, Neelkanth Mishra, MD & India Equity Strategist of Credit Suisse, Shaktikanta Das, Member of 15th Finance Commission, Ajay Dua, Former Secretary of DIPP, Rathin Roy, Member of PMEAC, Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO of ICICI Bank, Deepak Parekh, Chairman of HDFC, and Shobana Kamineni, President of CII and Executive Vice Chairperson of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise gave their take on Arun Jaitley's Union Budget and their outlook on the road ahead.

India Union Budget 2018-19 Live: News, updates and highlights from FM Arun Jaitley's Budget 2018 speech, announcements

'My personal view on the fiscal deficit is that we have had an exceptional year. Last year was not an ordinary year. The transformational reforms started by the government have had an impact on the fiscal deficit. We have never had demonetisation, GST took years – 10 years it was in the making. To convince all the state governments and to start a new tax regime, is not easy in a large country like India. Look at the disruptions that have happened during the year. There have been months where there was no income, there was no revenue – during the December month last year. So maintaining it at 3.5 percent as the previous year, I think is an achievement, and being practical, 3.3 percent next year is also being more realistic', Parekh said.

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