Govt, RBI to finalise borrowing calender for Oct-Mar period tomorrow

The finance ministry and the Reserve bank of India (RBI) are scheduled to hold meeting on Friday to decide about the borrowing calender for the second half of the current fiscal.

The borrowing calender for the October-March period will be decided keeping in mind the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent for 2018-19, sources said.

The government had budgeted Rs 6,05,539 crore for 2018-19 Gross G-Sec borrowing. It also intends to use larger inflows from Small Savings Schemes to fund its fiscal deficit during the year.

It will borrow Rs one lakh crore from NSSF (National Social Security Fund) as against budgeted amount of Rs 75,000 crore.

For the first half of the current fiscal, the government decided to borrow Rs 2.88 lakh crore as compared to Rs 3.72 lakh crore in the same period of FY18.

According to the announced plan, the government will complete 47.56 per cent of its the budgeted gross borrowing for the year in the first six months.

The government usually tries to complete at least 60 per cent of its borrowing requirements in the first six months.

The government borrows funds from money market to bridge the fiscal deficit. The deficit has been pegged at 3.3 per cent of GDP in 2018-19, lower than 3.5 per cent in current fiscal.