Vijay Kelkar panel likely to submit report by September 7

NEW DELHI: The Vijay Kelkar committee, appointed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram to formulate the fiscal consolidation roadmap, is likely to submit its report by Friday.

"Vijay Kelkar committee will submit its report on fiscal consolidation road by September 7," a senior finance ministry official told reporters.

Last month the government had asked former Finance Secretary Vijay Kelkar, Indira Rajaram and Sanjiv Mishra to formulate fiscal consolidation roadmap.

Both Misra and Rajaraman had been members of the 13th Finance Commission, which was headed by Kelkar.

The Centre's fiscal deficit has ballooned to 5.76 per cent of GDP in the last fiscal on account of high fuel subsidy outgo. The government has not been able to decontrol diesel prices even after taking in-principle decision.

For the April-June period, the fiscal deficit rose to Rs 1.9 lakh crore, or 37.1 per cent of the 2012-13 target. The Centre hopes to bring down the deficit to 5.1 per cent of GDP in the current fiscal but the task seems difficult in view of rising oil, food and fertiliser subsidy bills.