Govt to issue cash management bills to manage cash mismatch

22 Jul 2011 Evaluate

The Finance Ministry reviewed the cash position and market borrowing of the government on July 21 and in its statement said that the government will manage temporary mismatches in cash flows by issuing cash management bills (CMBs) and will not change the amount it plans to borrow via dated securities from the market between April and September.

The finance ministry said, “It has been decided that there will be no change in the amount of market borrowing through dated securities with reference to the first half (April-September 2011) borrowing calendar published earlier”.

“However, the Government of India in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India has decided to shift the auction of dated securities scheduled in the week ending September 23, 2011 to week ending August 19, 2011 to modulate the cash flows”, finance ministry’s note added.

The government has borrowed around $5.8 billion or Rs 260 billion via CMBs since late-June due to increase in the tax refunds, which has led to mismatch in government’s cash flow. However, the government says that the mismatch between cash flows is temporary and it should improve following the moderation in tax refunds.

But on the other hand, traders view issuances of CMBs as indication of mismatch between government’s revenue and expenditure, which may lead government to miss its borrowing target for the current financial year.  Government is set to sell bonds worth around $56.2 billion or Rs 2.5 trillion in the first two quarters of current financial year and it is also planning to borrow around Rs 4.17 trillion in the current fiscal year. Experts view that it would be slightly negative in terms of the fact that there would clearly be more cash management bills so that takes away some amount of demand from the system.

Increasing subsidies bills are viewed as threat to government’s fiscal target for the current financial year. In the 2011-12 budget, government had budgeted around $1.34 trillion for spending on major subsidies. The fuel subsidy bill was budgeted at around $5 billion, with assumption of international crude oil prices to be less than $100 per barrel, which is at present more than $118 per barrel.   However, international crude oil prices are showing signs of moderation. 

Experts anticipate that the government will increase its market borrowing by $300 billion to $700 billion, depending upon the government’s performance on current financial year.  However, last week, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that the government would not increase its borrowing for the current fiscal year even as higher commodity prices inflate its subsidy bill.

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