Government to borrow Rs50,000 crore this fiscal

New Delhi: The government has said that it will adhere to its borrowing schedule as drawn up in January for 2008-09. As per the revised borrowing schedule, the government will raise Rs50,000 crore against the earlier borrowing programme of Rs35,000 crore during the last quarter.

Eonomic affairs secretary Ashok Chawla said that the current (borrowing) schedule was sufficient for the whole fiscal. He was speaking on the sidelines of an economic cooperation meeting with a Chinese delegation. He did not rule out the possibility of additional borrowing in March, saying that it would have to be seen later.

The Reserve Bank of India has revised its indicative calendar for the fourth quarter of 2008-09.

To compensate for the impact of the economic stimulus packages, the Centre had decided to borrow Rs50,000 crore from the market, Rs15,000 crore over and above what was planned in December.

Chawla also said that Chinese companies are free to bid for public-private partnership projects in the Indian infrastructure sector, while clarifying that bilateral trade issues such as dumping were not part of the meeting's agenda. India and China together make up 40 per cent of the world's population.

Economy could grow at 7.5 per cent
Chawala said that the strong omestic demand stimulus is expected to ensure that the pace of growth would be maintainted despite the global depression. He said that India's economy can be expected to grow at seven to 7.5 per cent during the current fiscal, down from around nine per cent for the last three years.

Economists widely anticipate a slowdown of growth in India, which is Asia's third-largest economy, as it battles the global credit crisis that has taken its toll on key sectors like automobiles, real estate, textile and exports.

Chawla said the pace of growth for the 2009-10 fiscal would be contingent on the duration of the global recession, and on how fast capital flows return to normal.