*
Govt's H1 borrowing at over 57% of 2023/24 budget plan
*
Government to borrow 310-390 billion rupees weekly
*
Govt to carry out switch operations to smooth redemptions
*
Sovereign Green Bonds may be announced in H2 2023/24
By Nikunj Ohri March 29 (Reuters) - India's federal government plans to borrow 8.88 trillion rupees ($108.08 billion) - slightly above expectations - via bonds from the market in the first six months of the fiscal year starting April 1. The planned April-September borrowing constitutes about 57.6% of the total 15.43 trillion rupees planned for the current fiscal year, the government said in a statement on Wednesday. Borrowing in the first six months is slightly above market expectations of about 55% of this year's target. The government said the borrowing will be done through bonds of three, five, seven, 10, 14, 30 and 40 years tenure. It plans to borrow between 310 billion and 390 billion rupees a week in the first half of the fiscal year.
Borrowing has more than doubled from levels in 2019 - when
Prime Minister Narendra Modi stormed to a landslide re-election
- as the government's social spending on free food and subsidies
rose to record highs largely due to the pandemic.
The government plans net borrowing of 1.42 trillion rupees
in the quarter ending June 30, compared with 2.40 trillion
rupees in the same period last year.
The Reserve Bank of India has fixed the Ways and Mean
Advances, which are temporary advances given by the central bank
to governments to tide over any financing gaps, for the
April-September period at 1.50 trillion rupees, the government
said.
The government will continue to carry out switch operations
to smooth the redemption profile, it said.
There will be no fresh issue of government green bonds in
the first half of the financial year, though these may be issued
in the second half, it said.
($1 = 82.1580 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nikunj Ohri in New Delhi; Editing by William
Maclean, Jonathan Oatis and Mark Heinrich)
