Fiscal deficit to be lower than 3.3% target: Piyush Goyal
New Delhi, July 2: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday expressed confidence that the government will not only meet the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent, but it will do even better than that.
He said while there were perceptions that the target will not be met, he was hopeful that his government will not only meet the target but "will actually do better than our budgeted fiscal deficit".
Goyal said this would be achieved on the back of robust revenue collection under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which, he said, would cross Rs 13 lakh crore for the whole year.
According to government data, India's budgetary fiscal deficit for the two month period of April and May stood at 55.3 per cent -- Rs 3.45 lakh crore -- of the full year's target of Rs 6.24 lakh crore.
Earlier, the Finance Minister had assured that the government was monitoring and working to ensure that fiscal deficit will be maintained at 3.3 per cent despite this being an election year.
"We will meet the fiscal deficit target despite this being a year when traditionally -- as you would find in history be it 2013-14 or 2007 to 2009 period -- fiscal deficit, macroeconomic stability, good governence all were thrown to the wind for political exigencies," he had said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
‘Take all the cameras and leave’: Israel raids Al Jazeera office in West Bank
Ramallah: The Israel Army raided the offices of Al Jazeera in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Sunday and ordered the bureau to shut down.
Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers forcefully entered the building where Al Jazeera’s bureau is and handed the 45-day closure order to the network’s West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari, reported Al Jazeera. However, they did not give a reason for the decision.
Israeli soldiers reportedly began to confiscate documents and equipments in the office while tear gas and gunshots were heard in the premises. Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim remarked that the raid and closure order “comes as no surprise,” adding that the Israeli officials have been threatening to close down the bureau.
“There is a court ruling for closing Al Jazeera for 45 days. I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment,” an Israeli soldier was reportedly heard as saying in a live footage broadcasted by the channel.
In response to the incident, al-Omari stated that such actions against journalists are aimed at “erasing the truth and preventing people from hearing the truth.”
The Government Media Office in Gaza has called on media organisations and human rights groups worldwide to condemn this action, labelling it a “deafening scandal” and a blatant violation of press and media freedom.
The raid comes months after Israel banned Al Jazeera from operating inside the country in May, alleging that it threatened national security.
