Fiscal pressures for states due to pay revision, farm loan waivers: RBI

Higher expenditure on salaries and farm loan waivers, coupled with a revenue shortfall on GST implementation, led to a slippage of 0.35 per cent in states' fiscal targets to 3.1 per cent in 2017-18, the RBI said Thursday. This is the third consecutive year where the states have failed to meet their gross fiscal deficit (GFD) target, the central bank said, adding this comes despite expectations of an improvement on higher devolution from the Centre. (Text: PTI)