By IANS,
New Delhi: While the fiscal deficit is expected to widen to 6.8 percent by this fiscal end, the government Tuesday said it would bring it down to 3 percent by the end of 2011-12.
Addressing the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the current level of fiscal deficit was “unsustainable” and that it would be reduced to 5.5 percent in fiscal year 2010-11 and to 3 percent in 2011-12.
The minister had told the House Monday that the fiscal deficit would not exceed 6.8 percent of the gross domestic product.
In July, while presenting the budget for 2009-10, Mukherjee had said the government had taken a conscious decision to provide fiscal stimulus to the economy to minimise the impact of the global financial meltdown.