Govt to borrow to Rs 3.72 tln in H1

The government will be raising Rs 3.72 trillion in the first half of fiscal 2017-18, the Reserve Bank said today.
"To enable institutional and retail investors plan their investments efficiently and provide transparency and stability to the government securities market, an indicative calendar has been prepared in consultation with government," RBI said.
Starting with a Rs 15,000 crore issue of four securities of various maturities in the week beginning April 3, government will borrow through the six month period, it said.
All the issues sizes are either Rs 15,000 crore or Rs 18,000 crore, it said.
Government has set a gross borrowing target at Rs 5.8 trillion in the Budget 2018.

All the auctions covered by the borrowing calendar will have the facility of non-competitive bidding scheme under which five per cent of the notified amount will be reserved for the specified retail investors, it said.

Government or Reserve Bank will continue to have the flexibility to bring about modifications in the above calendar in terms of notified amount, issuance period, maturities, the central bank said.
They will also issue different types of instruments including variable rate instruments and those of non-standard maturity, depending upon the requirement of government, evolving market conditions and other relevant factors after giving due notice, it said.

The RBI also came out with a calendar for auction of Treasury Bills, under which government plans to raise Rs 1.82 trillion through paper of under 1-year in the April-June 2017 period.