 "Govt borrows Rs 3.5 lakh cr in April-Sept")
The government borrowed Rs 3.51 lakh crore gross and Rs 2.14 lakh crore net in the first six months of 2015-16, according to the finance ministry's quarterly report on debt management released on Tuesday. This is 58.5 per cent of the full-year gross borrowing target of Rs 6 lakh crore and 47 per cent of the net borrowing target of Rs 4.56 lakh crore, respectively.
The total public debt (excluding liabilities under the 'public account') of the government increased to Rs 54.12 lakh crore at end-September 2015, from Rs 53.01 lakh crore at end-June 2015, the report noted.
"This represented a quarter-on-quarter increase of 2.1 per cent (provisional) compared with an increase of 3.2 per cent in the previous quarter (first quarter of 2015-16)," it said.
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Internal debt constituted 92.1 per cent of public debt, compared to 92.3 per cent in the previous quarter. Marketable securities (consisting of rupee-denominated dated securities and treasury bills) accounted for 84.5 per cent of total public debt, the same level as of end-June 2015.
Twenty-seven per cent of outstanding stock has a residual maturity of up to five years, which implies that over the next five years, on an average, 5.4 per cent of outstanding stock needs to be rolled over every year.
"Thus, the rollover risk in debt portfolio continues to be low. The implementation of budgeted buyback/switches in coming months is expected to reduce rollover risk further," the report noted.
According to the report, the outstanding internal debt of the government at Rs 49.85 lakh crore constituted 37.4 per cent of GDP at end-September 2015, compared to 37.8 per cent at end-June 2015.
During the second quarter of FY16, the government issued dated securities worth Rs 1.71 lakh crore. "The market borrowings calendar for the second half of 2015-16 have been adjusted down by Rs 15,000 crore to take into account the expected government borrowings through the sovereign gold bond and gold monetisation schemes," the report added.
The market saw a sharp correction in mid-August 2015 on account of devaluation of the Chinese yuan and concerns over a slowdown in the Chinese economy, which led to massive sell-off across asset classes globally.
