New Delhi, Sep 26 (UNI) The central government in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday released the calendar for raising Rs 6.61 lakh crore through market borrowings in the October-March period (second half or H2) of the current financial year 2024-25.
All the auctions covered by the calendar will have the facility of non-competitive bidding under which 5% of the notified amount will be reserved for the specified retail investors.
“In order to enable institutional and retail investors to plan their investments efficiently and to provide transparency and stability to the Government Securities Market, the Government of India, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, hereby, notifies the indicative calendar for issuance of Government dated securities, including Sovereign Green Bonds (SGrB) for the second half of the fiscal year 2024-25 (October 01, 2024 to March 31, 2025),” said Finance Ministry in a press release.
The Union Budget 2024-25 had pegged the current fiscal’s gross market borrowings through dated securities at Rs 14.01 lakh crore.
Commenting on the government’s borrowing plan, ICRA chief economist Aditi Nayar said that while this is only marginally higher than year-ago levels, a sharp decline in redemptions would entail a sharp 32% year-on-year expansion in the net borrowings to Rs 6 lakh crore in the second half of the fiscal.
“Aided by the favourable outlook for revenues and a possible undershooting of the ambitious capex target, ICRA expects the GoI’s fiscal deficit to print in line with or mildly trail the FY2025 RBE of Rs 16.1 trillion or 4.9% of GDP, at the current juncture. Therefore, the market borrowings appear unlikely to exceed the announced level for H2 FY2025,” she said.
