FY08 fiscal deficit to be 3.66% of GDP

The finance minister on Friday announced a fiscal deficit of 3.66 per cent of GDP for 2007-08 by incorporating off-Budget liabilities like oil and fertiliser bonds in the estimate.

The revised estimates for 2007-08 had pegged the fiscal deficit at 3.1 per cent of GDP, slightly ahead of the mandated target of 3.3 per cent.

This is the first time that the government has given a formal estimate of the impact of such liabilities on the fiscal deficit, although they continue to be kept as off-Budget liabilities.

Speaking in Parliament, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the government's fiscal deficit, including such off-budget liabilities, declined from 5.58 per cent of GDP in 1999-2000 to 5.1 per cent in 2003-04 and to 3.66 per cent this fiscal.

The figure has been arrived at by adding up the securities issued to fertiliser companies and oil marketing companies during the current fiscal year.

In the first and second supplementary demands for grants, the government had issued Rs 11,257 crore securities to oil marketing companies and Rs 7,500 crore to fertiliser companies.

In the latest third and final supplementary demands for grants passed by Parliament on Friday, the government has issued an additional Rs 9,296 crore securities to the oil marketing companies, taking total off-budget liabilities to Rs 28,053 crore.