New Delhi, Sep 15 (UNI) The government on Saturday said it is confident that inflation is broadly strictly under control and they would maintain the 3.3 per cent fiscal deficit target.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said 'The government is confident that we will have a growth rate higher than what was projected earlier this year in the budget. The inflation is broadly under control.'
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his satisfaction with the economy and macroeconomic data, which is emerging this year. The government is confident that it would maintain the 3.3 per cent fiscal deficit target.
Mr Jaitley was addressing a press conference after an economic review meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RBI Governor Urjit Patel.
The meeting was the second in the series of meetings called by the Prime Minister, to review constantly the rising prices of petrol and diesel, depreciation of rupee and widening Current Account DeficitIt was also attended by the officials of the PM's Economic Advisory Council.
He said inflation is broadly under control and the government has already spent about 44 per cent of budgeted expenditure. They will end year without any cuts.
'As far as capital expenditure is concerned, already we have spent about 44 per cent of the budgeted expenditure till August 31 and we'll end the year without any cuts and will maintain the 100 per cent capital expenditure,' he added.
On GST and other indirect taxes, Mr Jaitley said the GST is settling down and with the kind of pickup in consumption, which has taken place. It will have an impact on GST collection in future months as well. They are also confident that between direct and indirect tax collections, the government would comfortably meet target.
'Demonetisation and GST are both beginning to show results. The Revenue department informed that we are moving ahead of schedules with respect to tax collections.
'We are also optimistic of growth rate and tax collections. We are confident of maintaining the divestment target too,' the Minister added.
Talking about the meeting, the Minister said today was the internal meeting with the Finance Ministry, where the Department of the Economic Affairs gave a detailed presentation. The Prime Minister took a review of the various departments of the Finance Ministry.
Due to the rising crude oil prices in the international market, the country's trade deficit is increasing, which can be a challenge in achieving fiscal deficit targets. The total trade deficit for the current financial year from April to August is 80.35 billion dollars, which is 19.44 per cent higher during the same period of the previous fiscal year of 67.27 billion dollars.
On Friday, in a similar meeting under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, they had deliberated upon the reasons and ways to check the adverse impact that the fall in rupee value is likely to have on the economy and retail inflation and sky-rocketing prices of diesel and petrol.
After the meeting, Mr Jaitley had told that five measures would be taken to stop the rupee depreciation and reduce the current account deficit.
These measures include reducing the import of non-essential products and increasing exports. However, a detailed list of products for import reduction will be prepared later. Also, it was decided to eliminate 20 per cent of the maximum investment in any corporate group for foreign portfolio investors.
For the current financial year, masala bonds have been exempted from 'withholding tax'. This tax is levied, when anyone purchases bonds.
The two-day economic review meeting comes in the wake of the increasing attack on Government by the Opposition on the issue of skyrocketing prices of petrol and diesel and the fall in the value of rupee vis-a-vis the US dollar.
The Opposition Congress had called a Bharat Bandh on this issue on September 10.
UNI SW RJ 2320