Improvement over 80.8% in year-ago period even as concerns rise that govt may not be able to meet target of 3.3% of GDP India’s fiscal deficit at the end of the first quarter of the current financial year was 68.7% of the budgeted target for 2018-19, better than 80.8% a year ago. The data comes amid growing concern that the government may not be able to meet the target of 3.3% of GDP, with the recent cuts in goods and services tax (GST) causing revenue loss while the national health protection scheme and the minimum support prices (MSP) to farmers could add to spending. “Notwithstanding the mild improvement in the fiscal deficit in Q1 FY19 relative to the year-ago level, various fiscal concerns persist, including whether the budgeted targets for GST revenues, dividends and profits and disinvestment would be realised, and whether the outlays required for revised MSPs, the national health protection scheme, fuel and other subsidies, and bank recapitalisation would prove to be adeq