Fiscal deficit likely to be around 4.5% of GDP in FY14

NEW DELHI: Fiscal deficit for 2013-14 is likely to be around 4.5 per cent of the GDP, marginally lower than 4.6 per cent that was mentioned in the interim budget for FY15, a senior Finance Ministry official said.

“Fiscal deficit for the last fiscal year will be around 4.5 per cent,” the official said.

“The reason for this fall could be because there is expectation of compression in the Plan expenditure,” the official added.

While presenting the interim budget for FY15 Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said that the fiscal deficit for 2013-14 will be contained at 4.6 per cent.

The fiscal deficit, which is the gap between expenditure and revenue, was 4.9 per cent of GDP in 2012-13.

After taking over as Finance Minister in August 2012, Chidambaram had drawn up a financial consolidation roadmap to lower the fiscal deficit to 4.8 per cent of the GDP in 2013-14, 4.2 per cent in 2014-15 and 3.6 per cent in 2015-16.