India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said the government remains confident of meeting its fiscal deficit target of 4.4% of GDP for the year ending March 2026, according to The Economic Times. The Union Budget, presented in Parliament in February by the Finance Minister, had pegged the fiscal deficit at INR 15.69 trillion, or 4.4% of GDP for 2025-26, down from 4.8% in 2024-25. The lower fiscal deficit target is expected to be supported by strong tax collections. Under the revised Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, the government is mandated to reduce the fiscal deficit to below 4.5% by FY 2025-26. Last week’s data showed that the Indian central government recorded a budget deficit of INR 5.73 trillion in the first half of the 2026 fiscal year, or 36.5% of the annual estimate, widening from INR 4.75 trillion in the same period last year. However, the deficit was brought down from INR 5.98 trillion recorded in the first five months.