This puts the seven months – April to October – fiscal deficit at 96.1% of the budget estimate (BE) against the 79.3% during the corresponding period last year. In comparison, the total spending of the government climbed to Rs 12.92 lakh crore, which was up 60.2% of the BE compared to last fiscal's 58.2%. Shah, however, said it was too early to say whether the government may look at revising its fiscal deficit of 3.2% of the GDP for the current fiscal. According to him, the government could look at cutback of expenditure if the deficit target proved daunting for it; "the government can always cut back on expenditure and meet the deficit target but it is slightly early at this moment. Aditi Nayar, principal economist, Icra, said "inching up" of fiscal deficit highlighted the lingering concerns related to the possibility of a fiscal slippage in the current year.

Source: dna December 01, 2017 00:33 UTC