This may force finance minister Arun Jaitley to recalibrate his fiscal consolidation roadmap of achieving a fiscal deficit of 3% of GDP by 2018-19. In the budget, the government had pegged its aggregate gross market borrowing at Rs5.8 trillion. Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Care Ratings, said the government is preparing the market for a fiscal slippage. Net direct tax receipts, however, grew 14.4% to Rs4.8 trillion in the April-November period from a year ago. Bhanumurthy, professor of economics at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, said the 3.2% fiscal deficit target was estimated in a business-as-usual scenario.

Source: Hindustan Times December 27, 2017 12:38 UTC