The government will borrow Rs 3.5 lakh crore from the market in 2017-18, around Rs 75,000 crore lower than the the current fiscal.
“I have taken due care to limit the net market borrowing of the government to Rs 3.48 lakh crore after buyback, much lower than Rs 4.25 lakh crore of the previous year,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in the Budget 2017-18 speech today.
However, gross borrowing has been pegged at Rs 5.8 lakh crore up for 2017-18, marginally higher from Budget estimate of Rs 6 lakh crore in the ongoing fiscal.
Gross borrowing includes repayments of past loans and interests.
Repayment for past loans for the next fiscal has been pegged at 1.5 lakh crore.
Under the Market Stabilisation Scheme (MSS), the government will float bonds worth Rs 1 lakh crore in the next fiscal as against Rs 1.01 lakh crore in the current fiscal. MSS does not add to the fiscal burden but it is used to manage liquidity in the market.
Against the Budget estimate of Rs 20,000 crore under MSS for the current fiscal, the government had to raise the limit to Rs 1.01 lakh crore in order to mop up additional liquidity infused in the market due to demonetisation.