The State Government has decided to raise another ₹1,000 crore open market borrowings through sale of securities on Monday.
The auction will be conducted on the Reserve Bank of India Core Banking Solution (E-Kuber) system and payment by successful bidders will be made during banking hours on March 2 at the RBI head office in Mumbai and regional offices. The fresh borrowings take the total open market borrowings during the current quarter to more than ₹10,000 crore.
The State Government had earlier opted for open market borrowings of ₹1,000 crore in two tranches, ₹2,000 crore in two tranches, ₹3,000 crore and ₹1,187 crore during the January-March quarter taking the total OMBs to ₹10,187 crore. The State, according to the indicative calendar of borrowings released by the RBI, decided to raise ₹13,562 crore for the fourth quarter.
With the borrowings and other liabilities reaching ₹39,069 crore by the end of December quarter, the fresh OMBs will aggregate the total to close to ₹50,000 crore. Borrowings will cross the ₹50,000 crore mark if the State sticks to its target of raising ₹13,562 crore as one more month is remaining in the current fiscal.
The State Government had projected the borrowings and other liabilities to be of the order of ₹45,509 crore in the budget presented for the current fiscal. However, revenue from some of the projected sectors was not up to the expected levels forcing the State to opt for more OMBs. While revenue from several sectors like the GST, Sales Tax, Excise and Registration and Stamps remained on course with the projected figures, non-tax revenue and revenue through grants in aid and contributions remained much below the expectations till the end of the third quarter.
Revenue from these two sectors was below 20 per cent of the projections till the end of the third quarter leading to rise in fiscal deficit.
