Govt to borrow ₹8.88 tn in H1
1 min read 30 Mar 2023, 12:13 AM ISTThe borrowing programme is finalized in consultation with RBI, the ministry said. The Centre has budgeted a gross market borrowing of ₹15.43 trillion in FY24.
PremiumNEW DELHI : The Central government has decided to make a gross market borrowing of ₹8.88 trillion in the first half of FY24, accounting for 57.55% of the overall market borrowings planned for the year, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
The borrowing programme is finalized in consultation with RBI, the ministry said. The Centre has budgeted a gross market borrowing of ₹15.43 trillion in FY24.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech for FY24, projected a fiscal deficit of ₹17.86 trillion, accounting for 5.9% of the nominal gross domestic product (GDP). The Centre is pursuing a target of a fiscal deficit lower than 4.5% of GDP by FY26.
The ministry said the borrowing is scheduled to be completed in 26 weekly tranches of ₹31,000 crore- ₹39,000 crore. The borrowing will be spread under securities of 3-, 5-, 7-, 10-, 14-, 30- and 40-year maturity.
The ministry also said that the issuance of sovereign green bonds would be announced in the second half (H2) of FY24.
The government will continue to exercise the greenshoe option to retain an additional subscription of up to ₹2,000 crore against each of the securities indicated in the auction notification.
Weekly borrowing through issuance of treasury bills in the first quarter of FY24 is expected to be ₹32,000 crore with net borrowing of ₹1.42 trillion during the quarter, against net borrowing of ₹2.40 trillion in the comparable quarter of FY23.
The ministry also said that, as in the past, all the auctions covered by the calendar would have the facility of a non-competitive bidding scheme under which five per cent of the notified amount will be reserved for the specified retail investors. Also, the Centre or RBI will continue to have the flexibility to bring about modifications in the borrowing calendar in terms of the notified amount, issuance period or maturity and to issue different types of instruments, including instruments having non-standard maturity, floating rate bonds (FRBs), consumer price index-linked inflation-indexed bonds (IIBs), etc., depending on the requirement of the government, evolving market conditions and other relevant factors, after giving due notice to the market.
