Budget 2019: Slight slippage in fiscal deficit target, says Piyush Goyal

The Narendra Modi government has proposed to revise upward its fiscal deficit target of 3.1% of GDP for 2019-20 to 3.4% of GDP after breaching the fiscal targets for the second consecutive year in 2018-19.

Presenting the last budget of the government before the general elections, finance minister Piyush Goyal said the government could have easily achieved the fiscal deficit targets in 2018-19 and 2019-20, but for the additional allocation of ₹20,000 crore and ₹75,000 crore, respectively, for the PM-Kisan scheme.

For 2018-19, the revised estimate of fiscal deficit stands at 3.4% of GDP against the budget estimate of 3.3%.

Lower than expected GST collections and tardy progress in the disinvestment process are considered to be the main reasons for the miss in the fiscal deficit target in 2018-19.

According to Controller General of Accounts (CGA) data up to November 2018, the fiscal deficit in the first eight months stood at 114.8% of the full-year target against 112% during the same period a year ago.

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