India to conduct 150 billion rupees of debt buyback, 20 billion rupees of switch by March-end

Reuters Market Eye - The government will buy back 150 billion rupees of bonds, while it will conduct a switch of 20 billion rupees as part of its 500 billion rupee debt switch for 2013/14, according to budget documents.

The government had said in the 2013/14 budget it would conduct a debt switch of 500 billion rupees for the year ending March 31, which would be cash-neutral, but said in Monday's interim budget that it would eventually issue around 300 billion rupees of long-dated bonds and buy 450 billion rupees of short-dated bonds.

The 20 billion rupee debt switch will be a part of the 300 billion rupee switch for FY14 and will involve buying securities maturing in 2014/15.

Some dealers speculate that the net 150 billion rupees worth of securities the government plans to buy back by end of the current fiscal year will be with the Reserve Bank of India.

(Reporting by Suvashree De Choudhury)