Need more money to fund pay hikes: Jaitley
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said that he would need more money in the current fiscal to absorb the pay hikes for one crore state workers and pensioners. The off-cycle pay hikes were announced in June on the Seventh Pay Commission's recommendations. Further, the government is "optimistic” of achieving its 3% fiscal deficit target in 2017-18, the Ministry said.