New Delhi, Feb. 1 -- The Centre is set to achieve a fiscal deficit of 4.8% of India's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024-25, aiming to reduce it further to 4.4% for 2025-26, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech on Saturday.

The government's revised estimate on fiscal deficit is down from the 4.9% target that it had set for 2024-25.

On 13 January, Mintreported citing sources that India may record a fiscal deficit for FY25 at 4.7-4.8% of GDP, below the budgeted estimate of 4.9%, primarily driven by lower expenditure, notably on planned capital investments, along with higher-than-anticipated dividends from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Fiscal deficit refers to the shortfall between a government's income...