NEW DELHI: India’s fiscal deficit crossed the target set for 2017-18 by the end of November itself, triggering fresh concerns it will stay so for the year. Fiscal deficit for April-November was Rs 6.12 lakh crore, or 12% more than the Rs 5.47 lakh crore target for the year, data released by the government showed.Deficit at the same point last year was about 14% less than budget estimate. ET had reported earlier that a section of the government was not in favour of expenditure cuts to stay within the budgeted fiscal deficit of 3.2% of GDP for FY18 as it would undermine an economic recovery that is underway.Economists warned that any sharp contraction in expenditure, required to meet the target, would hurt growth. “Given the front-loading in the early part of the year, capital outlay and net lending would have to contract by a sharp 15.4% in the last four months of this fiscal to avoid exceeding the budgeted estimate for FY2018, which holds negative implications for growth of investment as well as overall economic activity in those months. Moreover, revenue expenditure will have to stagnate on a YoY basis in December 2017-March 2018 to avoid exceeding the budgeted target," said Aditi Nayar, principal economist, ICRA Ltd.India’s economy expanded 6.3% in July-September, up from a three-year low of 5.7% in the previous quarter. On Wednesday, the government announced additional borrowing of Rs 50,000 crore through dated government securities in the last quarter of fiscal.Independent experts expect a fiscal deficit slippage of up to 3.5% of GDP. “Taken together, fiscal deficit at 112% of FY18 budget estimate up to November 2017, disappointing GST collections for November 2017 and recent increase in govt’s issuance calendar signal fiscal slippage in FY2018,” Nayar said.