In view of the impact of lockdown on tax collection and need to garner additional resources to fight the menace of coronavirus, the government has substantially increased its market borrowing programme for the current financial year (FY21) by about 54 percent or Rs 4.2 lakh crore to Rs 12 lakh crore, a development that will have severe implications for the fiscal deficit. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in her budget for 2020-21 pegged gross borrowing in the current financial year at Rs 7.8 lakh crore, higher than Rs 7.1 lakh crore estimated in 2019-20.
Of the total, the government would raise Rs 6.98 lakh crore from the dated securities in the first half of the current fiscal. This is 58 percent of the total borrowing target. The government raises funds from the market to fund its fiscal deficit through dated securities and treasury bills. The Budget has pegged fiscal deficit at 3.5 percent for the next fiscal, down from 3.8 percent of the GDP in the current financial year. It would be difficult to quantify an increase in fiscal deficit due to hike in borrowing as the government assessment about economic growth and an anticipated shortfall in revenue collection are not known yet.
The government has also raised weekly auction of dated securities to Rs 30,000 crore as against the earlier decision of Rs 19,000-21,000 crore. All the auctions covered by the calendar will have the facility of non-competitive bidding scheme under which 5 percent of the notified amount will be reserved for the specified retail investors.
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