When Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the 2018-19 Union Budget on February 1, he may announce a fiscal deficit number for 2017-18 quite close to the target of 3.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in spite of additional borrowing, higher-than-anticipated spending on flagship schemes, and projected shortfall in the goods and services tax (GST) and spectrum sales.

Accounting for the first Advance Estimates for 2017-18, an additional planned borrowing of Rs 200 billion, the fiscal deficit could come in at 3.35 per cent of GDP. But even that can be negated and the fiscal ...