Indian budget targets fiscal deficit of 4.1pc

India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley set a fiscal deficit target for this year of 4.1 per cent of GDP as he presented the new government’s 1st budget, while promising cuts in the next few years. He said India urgently needed ‘to introduce fiscal prudence’ by raising the tax take of the government and making efforts to balance the books after years of overspending. For the current financial year, which runs to March 31 next year, he said he would retain the 4.1per cent target of the previous Congress party government which lost national elections in May. ‘The target of 4.1 per cent fiscal deficit is indeed daunting. Difficult as it may appear, I have decided to accept this target as a challenge,’ he told parliamentarians. Shares have rocketed on expectations the new government of Narendra Modi will use the budget to flesh out campaign promises to lift Asia’s number-three economy from its longest stretch of sub-five per cent growth in a quarter-century, according to a news agency.