Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the government has loosened its purse strings as much as it can on fiscal deficit worries, but is "willing" to consider further requirements. Speaking at television network CNBC -TV18-s awards event, Sitharaman said the government is mulling creating a Development Finance Institution DFI to help fund the Rs 102-lakh crore infrastructure funding, but hinted at a larger reliance on the private sector in doing so. The government has utilised a clause under the fiscal deficit and budget management Act to have a wider fiscal gap of 3.8 per cent in FY20 and has committed to narrow it to 3.5 per cent in the FY21 budget. Advocates of pushing up growth want the government to do more, while there are others who point out to the costs of a wider fiscal deficit like high inflation and also a higher cost of borrowing if the rating agencies downgrade India. Sitharaman hinted that in the budget, the government has done all that it could on "loosening the purse" keeping the fiscal deficit in mind.

"We will have to see as it goes. I am not closing the options out. If there are more requirements, we are willing," Sitharaman, who had taken a slew of measures between the July 2019 budget presentation and the full year one for FY21 in February, said. It can be noted that GDP growth is set to slip to a decadal low of 5 per cent for FY20 as per official estimates. The December 2019 quarter growth came in at 4.7 per cent as compared with a revised 5.1 per cent expansion witnessed in the previous three months and 5.6 per cent expansion in the same period of the previous year, according to official data released on Friday. Sitharaman said she was not expecting a "shock" on the growth on either side, and suggested that a rise in the number is a sign of doing well. "If the ship is going steady and it is moving forward, I think that is the first sign of doing well," she said, adding quickly that the economy is doing well given the difficult circumstances and this will make us go forward with more confidence. To a question on the ways of driving of consumption, where there has been a fall in growth numbers, Sitharaman said there are multiple policies including the corporate tax cuts, personal tax cuts and direct benefit transfers, and stressed that the government is also pushing banks to lend more.