Fiscal deficit target would be brought down from 4.1% to 3.9: Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today expressed confidence that the fiscal deficit target would be brought down from 4.1 per cent to 3.9 per cent in the current fiscal. Replying to a discussion on the supplementary demands for grants for 2015-16 in the Lok Sabha, Mr Jaitley said this would be achieved despite the slowdown in global economy. He also said that government is not cutting down budget for social sector schemes otherwise fiscal deficit would be less than that. 

Reiterating that the growth rate would be in the range of 7 to 7.5 per cent, the finance minister said India is among the fastest growing economy. 

He said the challenge before the government is to further strengthen it. Mr Jaitley underlined the three challenges before the economy including slower growth rate



of global economy, bad monsoon for the consecutive two years and slowdown of private sector's investment. 

The Finance Minister said India needs investment for growth therefore steps have been taken to attract more FDI in India. 

He said that FDI increased by 40 percent in comparison to last year. Mr Jaitley urged the main opposition Congress to extend support to pass the GST bill in Parliament, as it will help enhance the growth rate by 1 to 1.5 per cent. On the issue of black money, Mr Jaitley said, now it will be mandatory for the individuals to quote PAN number in case of cash transaction of two lakh rupees or more. He said, the move will help check the generation of domestic black money. Mr Jaitley said, the notification to this effect will be issued soon.