India says it has bettered fiscal deficit target of 4.1%

India's finance ministry said in a statement Sunday that it had managed to better its fiscal and revenue deficit targets for the year 2014-15, as per provisional accounts for the year.

"Government betters its own financial targets during 2014-15; fiscal deficit for the financial year stands at 4.0 percent (of GDP) against the target of 4.1 percent," finance ministry said.

"While revenue deficit stands at 2.8 percent against target of 2.9 percent," it added.

The ministry said that these provisional figures "may undergo changes during the final compilation of accounts after audit."

India's finance minister Arun Jaitley, who presented Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's first full-budget earlier in February, said at the time that the country would achieve its goal of cutting the fiscal deficit.

Modi's right-wing government announced an increase of $11.3-billion in spending on crumbling roads, rail and other infrastructure in the budget.

Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power last year on a pledge to revive India's flagging economic fortunes and provide jobs for its 1.2 billion people.

Besides crediting its "prudent policies and commitment to fiscal consolidation," the government's Sunday statement also attributed a part of its fiscal success to a nine percent year-on-year growth in gross tax collections.