Government debt rises to Rs40,83,000 cr in Q4 of FY’13

Total public debt (excluding liabilities under the 'Public Account') of the government at end-March 2013 increased on a quarter-on-quarter basis by 0.4 per cent (provisional) to Rs40,83,000 crore, compared with an increase of 4.0 per cent to Rs40,64,755 crore as of the quarter ended December 2012.

Internal debt constituted 91.1 per cent of public debt and marketable dated securities accounted for 75.0 per cent of total public debt.

About 31 per cent of outstanding dated securities have a residual maturity of up to 5 years, which implies that over the next five years, on an average, slightly more than 6.0 per cent of outstanding stock needs to be rolled over every year.

The Government's outstanding internal debt at Rs37,18,633 crore constituted 37.1 per cent of the GDP, compared to 36.8 per cent at the end December 2012, the report added.

It said the liquidity conditions in the economy remained tight during the January-March quarter with the liquidity deficit.

The RBI reduced CRR by 25 basis points to 4 per cent, effective January 29, 2013 and purchased securities worth Rs33,549 crore through OMO auctions during the quarter.

The RBI also reduced repo rate to 7.50 per cent during the quarter in two steps of 25 basis points each.

The net amount provided under Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) operations remained consistently high during the quarter.

The cash position of the government during last quarter was comfortable and remained in surplus mode during the quarter.

The issuances of treasury bills were, however, scheduled in view of need for building up adequate surplus cash balance toward the end of the year to meet beginning of the year expenditure.

''Nevertheless, the amount raised though competitive route was reduced from the scheduled amount by Rs4,150 crore during the quarter in view of comfortable cash position,'' the debt report added.

It further said net inflows on account of foreign investment picked up during January-February on increased inflows through FDI and FIIs.

''Increased foreign investment inflow enabled easing of some pressure on rupee which remained under strain due to widening of trade deficit,'' it said.

The Rupee closed at 54.4 (per USD) at end-March 2013 as compared with 54.8 at end-December 2012.

Total expenditure during April-February period at 85.2 per cent of revised estimates (RE) was higher than 83.9 per cent during the same period of previous fiscal.

As a result of higher expenditure, revenue deficit and fiscal deficit during April-February, at 101.2 per cent and 97.4 per cent of RE, were higher than 96.6 per cent and 94.6 per cent respectively, in the year-ago period, it said.