Fiscal deficit is 4.1% this year as telcos come to the rescue

Fiscal deficit is 4.1% this year as telcos come to the rescue

• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

The government is believed to have met the fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent of GDP for 2014-15, helped by last minute payment of Rs 10,808 crore by telecom companies for spectrum and tax receipts in March

Official sources said that telecom companies paid Rs 10,808 crore today, the last day of the financial year.

Meanwhile, the official figures for April-February period of the current fiscal released by the the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) said the fiscal deficit (gap between expenditure and revenue) was Rs 6.02 lakh crore, nearly 90,000 crore over the target of Rs 5.12 lakh crore.

The tax and other receipts in March, which will be released by the CAG later, have also contributed to meet the target for 2014-15, sources added.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was keen to meet the fiscal deficit target, set by his predecessor P Chidambaram.

Jaitley had said “I will meet the challenging target of 4.1% of GDP which we have inherited.”

He had also proposed to bring down fiscal deficit to 3.9% of GDP in 2015-16, 3.5% in 2016-17 and 3% by 2017-18.

Although telecom companies have time till April 8 to pay Rs 28,872 crore of the spectrum winning bid, they made part payment today, sources said.

Earlier, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had appealed to the telecom firms to make payment within 2014-15. The telecom companies which won the bid had to pay Rs 28,872 crore as upfront payment.

“I made an appeal to all successful companies to make payment keeping countries image on fiscal deficit in mind.

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