Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says fiscal situation should be comfortable next financial year

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the fiscal situation should be comfortable next financial year and there are no worries at the moment regarding slippages in meeting the deficit targets.

Brushing aside any immediate need to worry about rising global oil prices, Jaitley said an assessment should not be made based on hypothetical situation concerning crude prices as the trend in the last three days has been opposite (with prices falling again), adding that at this stage he was not worried about any slippages on the fiscal front.

Addressing a press conference after meeting RBI's board in a customary post-Budget exercise, Jaitley also said that the last decision of the Monetary Policy Committee, chaired by RBI Governor Urjit Patel that decided to keep rates unchanged, was a "balanced decision".

"... as far as fiscal situation is concerned, I see next year to be more comfortable as far as revenues are concerned. I cannot see at this stage that there would be any slippages," he said.

Jaitley, who also met Sebi's board and top officials earlier today, said one of the factors that stood out from the capital market regulator's presentation is that there is an increased reliance on corporate bonds as far as credit is concerned.

Patel said the equity-debt ratio for corporates is expected to get better going forward as the capital markets have shown a good trend in terms of raising funds through bonds.