New Delhi, April 7: The Indian economy will grow by a little over 6 per cent in fiscal year 2013-14, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Saturday.
The comment comes after both Raghuram Rajan. chief economic advisor to the Finance Ministry, and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the planning commission, recently expressed confidence that India's gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by over 6 per cent during the current fiscal year.
According to the government estimate, the country's economy will grow by 5 per cent in fiscal year 2012-13, the lowest in a decade. Economic momentum has decelerated sharply at a time of weak external demand and limited space for monetary or fiscal stimulus, global brokerage Nomura said.
The government has achieved its tax target of Rs. 10,38,003 crore for the fiscal year 2012-13, Mr Chidambaram said. Direct taxes contributed Rs. 5 lakh crore, while indirect tax collections stood at Rs. 4 lakh crore.
"There has been some shortfall in direct tax collection. But, overall, we met the target," he said.
Mr Chidambaram added that considering it was a difficult year, a revenue growth of 16.7 per cent is commendable, especially when the economy grew at 5 per cent.
In order to bridge the widening fiscal deficit, the government, in this year's budget, levied a 10 per cent surcharge on taxable income over Rs. 1 crore. The tax department has also recently sent over 70,000 notices across the nation to tax evaders.
The finance minister also expressed hope that fiscal deficit for the fiscal year 2012-13 will be better than 5.2 per cent of the GDP.
In his budget announced this February, Mr Chidambaram had said that fiscal deficit has been curtailed at 5.2 per cent, lower than the estimated target of 5.3 per cent.
