Will stick to deficit goal: Sitharaman

NEw DelhiUnion finance authorities minister Nirmala Sitharaman on fri told the Rajya Sabha that the government testament accomplish the 4.3% fiscal deficit target in 2026-27 despite a steep reduction in central excise duty on petrol and diesel on Friday through efficient revenue and expenditure management, including non-tax revenue.Replying to a debate on the Finance Bill 2026, the minister said, “Union excise duty is one of the multiple sources of revenue to the government and contributes under 10% of the gross tax revenue, estimated to be collected in the forthcoming financial year. So, mobilisation of additional resources, prioritising growth-induced expenditure, better targeting of welfare expenditure, and also greater transparency in fiscal operations have been the hallmark of our government, and I think, we will [be] following the same pattern.”“We will be able to keep the government’s fiscal stance carefully managed. Also, there will be efforts to have greater mobilisation through non-tax revenues,” she said while replying to Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale’s query. Non-tax revenues are receipts other than direct (such as income-tax) and indirect taxes (like GST). It includes proceeds from disinvestment, interest earnings, and dividends.The Parliament on Friday approved the Finance Bill 2026 with the Rajya Sabha returning the bill to the Lok Sabha with a voice vote, completing the budgetary exercise for the next fiscal starting April 1. The Lok Sabha passed the bill on Wednesday.Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) chairman Vivek Chaturvedi said the ₹10 reduction in special additional excise duty (SAED) on petrol and diesel each because of global energy supply disruptions caused due to the war in West Asia will be reviewed every fortnight. It will have an estimated revenue loss of ₹7,000 crore in a fortnight.According to experts’ estimates, if the situation continues throughout FY27 then the revenue implication would be around ₹1,70,000 crore in a full financial year. Chaturvedi, however, added that the levy of tax on refiners for exports of diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) will fetch an estimated ₹1,500 crore in a fortnight.Replying to Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil’s comments that the new gross domestic product (GDP) series would belittle previous numbers, Sitharaman said, “There are routine exercises of the government. I tell you the number of times Government of India has done this, and not randomly, it goes systematically… Nine revisions since Independence have happened.”“The first base year of 1948-49 was released in 1956 under Prime Minister Nehru’s Congress government, followed by 1960-61, which was released in 1967 and the 1970-71 base year was released in 1978 under the Janata Party government under Shri Morarji Desai,” she said. “Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress government released the 1980-81 base year series in 1988, and Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee under the NDA government released the new series in 1999 with base year 1993-94,” she added.She also gave the details of latest revisions. “Dr Manmohan Singh carried out two revisions, releasing new series in 2006 and in 2010. The current outgoing 2011-12 series was released in 2015 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and now the 2022-23 series has already been released. Every previous revision was not done to taunt the earlier governments. It happens under every government,” she said.In this new series, several new and improved data sources are being used to bring in granularity, accuracy and reliability of the estimates, the finance minister said. More than 300 data sources and about 1,400 variables will be used in this GDP series. It captures informal sector information also because it now uses the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE), she added.“Also, now we have the advantage of the GST data which shows where companies are operating and their output is assigned to the right states accurately. So, the data has now become a lot more comprehensive, a lot more vibrant and a lot more true to the time in which the data is being extracted,” she said.The Public Financial Management System (PFMS) real-time data actually reduces errors, avoids delays and makes GDP estimates more accurate, FM said. “We are also using the e-Vahan, rail and air transport services data and fuel-related data so that we are able to estimate better value for the goods and services,” she added.