By IANS,
New Delhi: India is unlikely to meet the 4.6 percent fiscal deficit target for the financial year ending March 31, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Wednesday.
“It will be difficult to achieve the target of fiscal deficit of 4.6 percent for the current financial year though we will make our best efforts to reach as near as possible,” Mukherjee said in pre-budget consultation with the representatives of agriculture sector here.
The finance minister said the financial year 2011-12 was a challenging one for both domestic and global economy.
The economic growth is estimated to fall to around 7 percent from the budgetary estimate of around 9 percent.
Other major budgetary targets including that of inflation, deficit and growth are unlikely to be met because of the turbulence in the global economy.
Mukherjee said inflation especially the food inflation remained very high during the major part of the year.
“It is only after tightening monetary policy over the year to contain demand side inflationary pressures and removal of supply side constraints that we were able to contain the food inflation.”
In his first pre-budget consultation for 2012-13, Mukherjee said monsoon was normal in the last two years and Kharif production was expected to be around 124 million tonnes in the current financial year.
He invited suggestions from the representatives of the agriculture sector to enhance farm productivity, ensure balanced pricing and on measures required to meet food security needs and dealing with malnutrition and issues relating to procurement, marketing, cold chains and maintenance of buffer stocks.