Fiscal deficit to be brought down to below 4.5% by 2025-26: Sitharaman

Govt to borrow record `15.4 lakh crore in FY24

Fiscal deficit would be brought down to below 4.5 per cent by 2025-26, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday.

She also said that tax receipts for the next fiscal are budgeted at Rs 23.3 lakh crore and states would be allowed 3.5 per cent of GDP as fiscal deficit.

To finance the fiscal deficit in 2023-24, net market borrowing from dated securities is estimated at Rs 11.8 lakh crore, Sitharaman said while presenting the Union Budget for 2023-24 in the Lok Sabha.

She retained the fiscal deficit target of 6.4 per cent in the revised estimate for FY2022-23 and reduced it to 5.9 per cent for the next fiscal. The government had pegged the fiscal deficit at at 6.4 per cent of the GDP for the current financial year.

The fiscal deficit or the gap between expenditure and revenue for 2022-23 is estimated to be Rs 16,61,196 crore. The country's fiscal deficit was projected higher at 6.9 per cent for 2021-22 as against 6.8 per cent estimated earlier.

The Revised Estimates for 2021-22 indicate a fiscal deficit of Rs 15,91,089 crore as against the Budget Estimates of Rs 15,06,812 crore.

The minister also announced a new savings scheme, Mahila Samman Savings Certificate, for two

The government plans to borrow a record Rs 15.4 lakh crore from dated securities in FY24 to meet its expenditure requirement to prop up the economy.

This is higher than the total borrowing of Rs 14.21 lakh crore for the current financial year ending March 31, 2023.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the net market borrowings from dated securities are estimated at Rs 11.8 lakh crore to finance the fiscal deficit in 2023-24. "The balance financing is expected to come from small savings and other sources. The gross market borrowings are estimated at Rs 15.4 lakh crore," she said.

years to 2025 with a maximum deposit limit of Rs 2 lakh and an interest rate of 7.5 per cent.

She added that 50-year interest-free loans to state governments have to be spent on capital expenditure within 2023-24.