The government is committed to meeting the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent for the current fiscal despite it being an election year, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said today.


He also said that there will not be a spending cut to meet the target as the government has enough alternative resources for planned expenditure. Fiscal deficit stood at 3.53 per cent of the GDP, broadly in line with the government's revised estimates for 2017-18.


"Fiscal digit this year will be down to 3.3 per cent and I can assure you that we are monitoring and working to ensure that fiscal deficit will be contained at 3.3 per cent despite this being an election year, despite this being a year traditionally, and I will urge you to look at history be it 2013-14, be it 2007-08 or 2008-09, where fiscal deficits, micro-economic stability, good governance -- all were thrown to the wind for political exigencies," Goyal said.


In the Union Budget 2018-19 presented in February, the government had revised the fiscal deficit target for 2017-18 to 3.5 per cent from the earlier estimate of 3.2 per cent. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit was Rs 5.91 lakh crore, or 99.5 per cent, of the Budget estimates.


Addressing an event organised by industry body CII, Goyal said, the government will maintain stability in the economy and meet all economic parameters.


"You have a government today which is willing to say we will meet the aspirations of the people of India. We will meet our objectives of good governance. We will meet our objective for society to reach benefits of growth to poorest of the poor but we will also strengthen the Indian economy," he said. -- PTI