The finance ministry may achieve its fiscal deficit target of 4.8 per cent, as stated in the government's Budget Estimate for the current financial year.

The union government's fiscal deficit reached 95.2 per cent of the Budget Estimate in just nine months (April to December 2013) of the current financial year.

As Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has repeatedly announced that his ministry assumes the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 per cent stated in the Budget Estimate as the limit, he can allow over-spending with regard to receipts to the level of 4.8 per cent of what was stated in Budget Estimate in the past three months of current financial year.

But, fresh data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) showed that the fiscal deficit reached only Rs 5.16 lakh crore in the April-December period of current financial year, as against Rs 5.42 lakh crore projected in the Budget Estimate.

Till November last year, the country's fiscal deficit stood at Rs 5.09 lakh crore. Over-spending increased by another Rs 7,000 crore in the subsequent month. If it has been the trend for the past three months, then the finance ministry could easily keep the fiscal deficit under the targeted level of 4.8 per cent.

The CGA data revealed one more positive aspect. Revenue deficit, which had overrun the Budget Estimate till November last year, slipped to 97.7 per cent of the estimates by December of the same year. In hints, the revenue department collected more revenue on the current account than spending.