Govt has no plans to go for additional borrowing, says Revenue Secy; sticks to fiscal deficit estimate

The central government has ushered in Diwali by cutting the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 10 respectively. This may provide much-needed relief for the common man but it will have a Rs 60,000 crore burden on the government’s coffers in five months till March.

Bajaj feels that with some efforts on the revenue front, the government should be able to cover that gap.

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Reduction in excise duty on petrol and diesel has had an impact on value-added tax (VAT) because VAT is also levied on excise duty. So the prices have come down.

“The situation is dynamic, the feeling that we have from the ministry of petroleum is that the rates should remain somewhat at this level before they come down in the coming months, after the winters are over,” Bajaj stated.

GST collections in October were at the second-highest number since the rollout.

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“It signifies that the economy is on the uptick. It also signifies that people have realized that it is very important to formalize their businesses. A lot of credit also goes to the department which has very quietly worked on ensuring that there is better compliance by the people. From now onwards, I won’t say that Rs 1.30 lakh crore will be the ballpark figure for every month but from now onwards we should not see anything less than Rs 1.15-1.20 lakh crore in any month, so that is a good sign for GST in the coming months,” said Bajaj.