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Finance Secretary T V Somanathan has said that the government will stick to the fiscal deficit target of 5.9 per cent of the Gross domestic product (GDP) in FY24 as robust tax, non-tax collections will help meet the spending requirement and make up for any shortfall in disinvestment proceeds. He said although there would be a shortfall with respect to disinvestment, this shortfall would be met by non-tax revenue mobilisation.

It stated ‘Disinvestment target is unlikely to be met. However, I would say in aggregate the collective amount between disinvestment and non-tax revenue is likely to be very close to the budget. The total of disinvestment receipts, plus non-tax receipts are likely to be very close to the Budget Estimates.  He said ‘We expect to adhere to our fiscal deficit target this year...none of the events so far have caused anything for us to deviate from it.’

The government has already got a higher dividend from the Reserve Bank of India and expects higher dividends from public sector banks and other PSUs than estimated in the Budget. The Reserve Bank of India in May approved a Rs 87,416 crore-dividend payout to the central government for 2022-23, nearly triple of what it paid in the previous year. The government was expecting Rs 48,000 crore from the RBI, public sector banks and financial institutions in the current fiscal.