India's former finance secretary, Ashok Jha has said that the finance ministry was unable to meet its financial targets this year because tax collections in the country were below expectations.

He also said that the revenues expected were not realized and the expenditure projected was lower than actual expenses incurred by the government. He pointed out that the government had projected nearly Rs 60,000 crore on food, Rs 50,000 crore on fertiliser and Rs 24,000 crore on oil and petroleum products, as subsidies. However, the figures were huge underestimations especially in the case of oil and petroleum products.

India's Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that that country might have to settle for GDP growth of 7 per cent this year. Mukherjee had said that the central government is not likely to achieve its 4.6% fiscal deficit target for the financial year.

He said that it would be very difficult for the government to achieve the target in the financial year. Experts say that the government is likely to miss its target of reducing the budget deficit to 4.6 percent of gross domestic product one or two points in the current fiscal year.