Govt liabilities surge 3.2% over Q2 to Rs 93.89 lakh crore

Total liabilities of the government increased to Rs 93.89 lakh crore at the end of December 2019, up 3.2 percent as compared to the previous quarter, said finance ministry data on Wednesday. The liabilities, including those under the public account, had stood at Rs 91,01,484 crore at the end of September 2019. Public debt accounted for 90.4 percent of total outstanding liabilities at the end of December 2019.

The Public Debt Management Quarterly Report further said the proportion of debt (dated securities) maturing in less than one year was higher at 6.64 percent at the end of December 2019 as compared to its previous quarter level of 5.41 percent.

The proportion of debt maturing within 1-5 years was also higher at 25.09 percent at the end of December 2019, compared with 23.65 percent at end-September 2019.

Debt maturing in the next five years worked out to 31.7 percent of total outstanding debt at the end of December 2019 or 6.3 percent of outstanding stock, on an average, needs to be repaid every year over the next five years. As per the report, the yields on G-Secs moved in a narrow range during October-November 2019, before hardening in the first fortnight of December 2019.

This reflected the impact of several developments, namely reduction in the repo rate by RBI, contraction in IIP for the month of October and simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities in December 2019, the report said.

Central government-dated securities continued to account for a major share of total trading volumes in the secondary market, with a share of 82 percent in total outright trading volumes in value terms during the third quarter of the current financial year.

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