Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday exuded confidence that the government will achieve the fiscal deficit target of 3.9% in the current financial year.
"I have consciously kept this year a very modest target of 3.9 percent. I think the manner in which tax revenues and expenditure are moving, I don't think this will be difficult to meet," Jaitley said at the five-day India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS), which commenced in New Delhi on Monday.
Stating that there was better collection of revenues during the first six months of the current fiscal, he hoped the same for the remaining two quarters of 2015-16 and ruled out the possibility of a slash in expenditure either of state governments or that of various central ministries.
"I don't think this year we have to cut down expenditure of either state government or public expenditure of the central ministries as it is moving ahead of our target as far as indirect taxes are concerned," the minister said.
The targets for the next three years have been set at 3.9% for 2015-16, 3.5% for 2016-17, and 3% for 2017-18.
On the disinvestment front, the minister said there were challenges, particularly on account of global prices of metals, which constitute a large part of India's gross domestic product (GDP) not doing well.
"And therefore, I think it don't make sense divesting at a time when prices are low," Jaitley said.
