The government on Wednesday said that it has lowered its additional market borrowing programme from Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore. The decision follows a review of revenue receipts and expenditure, which indicated additional borrowing of Rs 20,000 crore would be enough to meet the financing needs of this fiscal ending March.
The government also expects more transfers of surplus cash from the Reserve Bank of India. The move is expected to help contain fiscal deficit, which has come under stress on account of lower GST mop-up.
It was in December 2017 that the government had announced its intention to borrow and additional Rs 50,000 crore in the current fiscal ending March 2018 through dated securities.
“Requirement of additional borrowing being reduced from Rs 50,000 crore as notified earlier to Rs 20,000 crore,” Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg tweeted on Wednesday.
The government had in October 2017 sought transfer of Rs 13,000 crore of surplus lying with RBI. In August, the central bank had paid a dividend of Rs 30,659 crore. The dividend was less than half of Rs 65,876 crore it had paid in 2015-16. The government had budgeted for Rs 58,000 crore dividend from RBI in its Budget for this fiscal year.