PTI, NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today defended his 2018-19 Budget loaded in favour of rural and agri economy and doing little for the middle class, saying it is a blend of fiscal prudence with the requirement and needs of the economy.
He said since the revenue collection from Goods and Services Tax (GST) comes with a lag of one month, hence the government has to do with GST collections only till February. March revenues under GST will come only in April.
“This budget blends fiscal prudence with the requirement and needs of the economy today. We had initially targeted 3.2 per cent fiscal deficit for this year. In the past few years we have regularly tried to maintain those targets. This year there were series of circumstances. One obviously was the fact that we were getting GST revenue one month less this year,” Jaitley told reporters at a post budget briefing. The minister in his budget speech today announced a relaxation in his fiscal consolidation roadmap saying fiscal deficit, which is the gap between government revenue and expenditure, would be 3.5 per cent as against 3.2 per cent targeted earlier.
