Budget 2019: Government Pegs Fiscal Deficit At 3.4% In 2019-20 - 10 Points
- "The estimate of incomes and expenditure which I am presenting today, pegs the fiscal deficit of the year 2019-20 at 3.4 per cent of GDP," Mr Goyal said. (Read full speech here)
- Fiscal deficit occurs when government revenue falls short of its expenditure. It is an indication of the total borrowings needed by the government. (Read more about what fiscal deficit means here)
- "Considering the need for income support to farmers, we have provided Rs 20,000 crore in 2018-19 Revised Estimates (RE) and Rs 75,000 crore in 2019-20 BE," Mr Goyal explained. "If we exclude this, the fiscal deficit would have been less than 3.3 per cent for 2018-19 and less than 3.1 per cent for the year 2019-20."
- The current account deficit, against a high of 5.6 per cent six years ago, is likely to be only 2.5 per cent of GDP this year, the Union Minister said.
- On the other hand, the current account deficit (CAD) widened to 2.7 per cent of GDP in first half of 2018-19 from 1.9 per cent of GDP in 2017-18, mainly on account of higher trade deficit arising from higher petroleum, oil and lubricants imports.
- The current account deficit is a measurement of a country's trade where the value of the goods and services it imports exceeds the value of the goods and services it exports.
- The government has pegged the disinvestment target at Rs 90,000 crore for the coming financial year (Budget Estimate 2019-20). That marks an increase of 12.5 per cent from the goal of Rs 80,000 crore for the current financial year ending March 31.
- Mr Goyal said the government is confident of crossing the disinvestment target of Rs 80,000 crore this year.
- "We have pursued the public enterprises' asset management agenda to make these enterprises accountable to the people. As many as 57 CPSEs (central public sector enterprises) are now listed with a total market capitalisation of over Rs 13 lakh crore," Mr Goyal added.
- The government received over Rs 1 lakh crore from disinvestment proceeds during financial year 2017-18, he said.
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