India's economy grows at around 8.0pc: Jaitley

NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (Reuters): Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday he expects India's economy to sustain an annual growth rate of around 8.0 per cent on the back of measures taken by the government such as a unified tax code and a new bankruptcy law.

But he said India needs to assess the efficiency of its debt recovery tribunals for quicker decisions.

Meanwhile, the government reported on Tuesday a fiscal deficit of Rs 5.9 trillion ($81.4 billion) for April-August, or 94.7 per cent of the budgeted target for the current fiscal year compared with 96.1 per cent a year earlier.

Net tax receipts in the first five months of the fiscal year that ends in March 2019 were Rs 3.66 trillion, government data showed.

India expects to trim the deficit to 3.3 per cent of GDP this fiscal year, after meeting an upwardly revised fiscal deficit target of 3.5 per cent of GDP in 2017/18.