Govt slashes market borrowing target

Subhash Chandra Garg said, “Fiscal management (is) completely on track. We have reduced borrowing, as against Rs 2.88 lakh crore, we will be raising only Rs 2.47 lakh crore.” (PTI photo)

The finance ministry plans to stick to its fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product for 2018-19, Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said on Friday, while announcing Rs 70,000 crore reduction in the government’s gross borrowings for the entire year. The government will also be launching inflation-indexed bonds and one or two such bond issues will come in the current fiscal, he said.

Releasing the schedule of government borrowings for the second half of the year (October-March), Garg said the reduction in market borrowings will be met via raising resources through other means such as small savings.

“Since our fiscal deficit is not being affected at all we have decided to continue with the net borrowing programme as it is. However we had some rethink on the buyback programme as well as we expect some more funds to flow from small savings. So as a result we decided to reduce the total borrowing requirement for the year by Rs 70000 crore,” he said.

The government would be borrowing Rs 2.47 lakh crore in October-March as compared to Rs 2.88 lakh crore during April-September of 2018-19. “Fiscal management (is) completely on track. We have reduced borrowing, as against Rs 2.88 lakh crore, we will be raising only Rs 2.47 lakh crore,” Garg said.