Public debt rises 3% in Apr-Jun qtr

Government's total debt increased by 3 per cent in the April-June quarter, over the previous three months, to Rs 58.94 lakh crore.
In the Public Debt Management report, Finance Ministry said the total public debt of the Government provisionally increased to Rs 58.94 lakh crore at June-end, from Rs 57.20 lakh crore at the end of March.
"This represented a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) increase of 3 per cent in Q1 FY 17 (first quarter of 2016-17) as compared with an increase of 2.6 per cent in the previous quarter (Q4 of FY 16)," the report said.
Internal debt constituted 92.1 per cent of public debt at end of June 2016, while marketable securities accounted for 82.8 per cent, it said.

The cash position of the government during the June quarter of 2016-17 was comfortable and remained mostly in surplus mode barring a few occasions, it added.
"With RBI's decision to progressively lower the average ex ante liquidity deficit in the system (from current one percent of NDTL) to a position closer to neutrality in its first bi-monthly monetary policy review on April 5, 2016, liquidity conditions in the economy significantly improved during the quarter," the report said.

During the first quarter of the current fiscal, the government issued dated securities worth Rs 1.65 lakh crore (27.5 per cent of BE), lower than Rs 1.80 lakh crore (30.0 per cent of BE) in same period of last fiscal.

Net market borrowings during April-June of current fiscal at 25.7 per cent of BE were also lower than 26.8 per cent of BE in the corresponding period of previous year.
"Considering the cash position of the Government, the borrowings calendar for the first half of current financial year envisaged an even distribution of borrowings across first and second quarter of the year," the report said.
Gross and net market borrowing requirements of the government for 2016-17 were budgeted at Rs 6 lakh crore and Rs 4.25 lakh crore respectively. Last fiscal, the gross borrowing stood at Rs 5.92 lakh crore and net at Rs 4.01 lakh crore.