Finance Minister Arun Jaitley noted that while it is important to maintain the pace of bringing down the fiscal deficit, it must also be focused on growth and has thus decided to continue with the medium term consolidation target of 3% of the GDP.
He added that a timetable by itself would not be of much help to achieve the target, noting that he would take three years, instead of the earlier two years, to reach the target of 3%.
Over the next three fiscal years, starting 2015-16, the fiscal deficit target is set at 3.9%, 3.5% for 2016-17 and 3.0% for 2017-18.
