NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The Indian government plans gross market borrowing of 7.5 trillion rupees ($90 billion) in the April-September period, which is 53% of the total estimate for the year, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration in the last budget before national elections set a borrowing plan of 14.13 trillion rupees for 2024/25 that starts from April 1.
The full year’s borrowing plan announced on Feb. 1 was lower than previous years and surprised the market as Modi refrained from a populist budget and instead focused on reducing the government deficit.
But the current borrowing plan announced would be effective till the new government comes to power after over a month-long national election that begins on April 19. The new government will make a fresh budget.
The government will be selling a new 15-year bond instead of a 14-year security in the fiscal first half, the ministry said. The borrowing will be done through bonds with maturities of three, five, seven, 10, 30, 40 and 50 years.
The government will sell 120 billion rupees of 10-year green bonds in April-September, the ministry added.
The Indian government is targeting a fiscal deficit of 5.1% of the gross domestic output in 2024/25 from 5.8% for 2023/24.
The Ways and Means Advances limit for the first half of the financial year is set at 1.50 trillion rupees.
($1 = 83.3318 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nikunj Ohri; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Eileen Soreng)
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