2017-18 Fiscal Deficit To Be Lower Than Revised Estimates: Economic Affairs Secretary

New Delhi: Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg on Monday said that the country's fiscal and revenue deficits would be lower than the revised estimates for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

After taking into consideration almost all revenues and expenditure, "I can confirm that both fiscal deficit and revenue deficit are lower than the revised estimates for 2017/18," Mr Garg said on Twitter.

The government revised its fiscal deficit target to 3.5 per cent of GDP from an earlier 3.2 per cent of GDP for the 2017-18 fiscal year that ended on March 31.

Earlier, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told reporters the government had raised Rs 9.95 lakh crore ($152.82 billion) in direct taxes in 2017-18 compared with a collection target of Rs 9.8 lakh crore.

($1 = Rs 65.1100)