Small savings, March taxes to keep fiscal deficit in control

The government on Friday said the overshooting of fiscal deficit to 121 per cent over the budgeted figure "is not a worry" as funds from small savings and March tax revenues can very well bridge any gap.

"We have lots of flows in small savings banks; and the flow is really robust and high," Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said here on the sidelines of a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) meeting.

"We have increased the contribution of small savings to the fiscal deficit from Rs 75,000 crore to Rs 1.25 lakh crore," Garg added.

The current fiscal deficit target is 3.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He said: "We have got lots of taxes in March which will take care of any increase in fiscal deficit." 

Fiscal deficit has already risen to 121.5 per cent of full year's revised target of Rs 6.3 lakh crore in January on account of lower revenues. It stood at Rs 7.7 lakh crore in the April-January period of current fiscal.