Govt's total liabilities increase to Rs 88.18 lakh crore in June quarter

The Ministry of Finance on Friday said the government's total liabilities increased to Rs 88.18-lakh crore at the end of June quarter, up from Rs 84.6-lakh crore in the corresponding quarter last year. It added that the Centre's public debt was 89.4 per cent of the total outstanding liabilities. "The government's public debt accounted for 89.4 per cent of the total outstanding liabilities at end-June 2019," a statement from the Department of Economic Affairs' public debt management cell said.

The statement said the centre had issued "dated securities" worth over Rs 2.2-lakh crore in Q1 of FY20 against Rs 1.4-lakh crore in Q1 of FY19. The weighted average maturity of new issuances stood at over 15 years in Q1 of FY20 compared to over 14 years in Q4 of FY19. The weighted average yield of issuances for the quarter was 7.21 per cent compared to 7.47 per cent in Q4 of FY19, it added.

During the April-June period, the Centre did not raise any amount through the issuance of cash management bills. The net average liquidity injection by the Reserve Bank of India under liquidity adjustment facility, including marginal standing facility, was Rs 17,599.3 crore during the quarter, it added.

The Centre said the government securities yields had softened in Q1 of FY20 with the decrease in weighted average yield of primary issuances to 7.21 per cent from 7.47 per cent in Q4 of FY19, reflecting the impact of reduction in repo rate twice by 25 bps each, OMO (open market operations) purchase auction and a downward movement in the yield on US 10-year treasury bond.

"The yield on 10-year benchmark G-Sec (7.26 per cent GS 2029) closed at 6.88 per cent on June 29, 2019. The Central government dated securities continued to account for a major share of total trading volumes in the secondary market, with a share of 86.0 per cent in total outright trading volumes in value terms during Q1 of FY20," said the statement. The public debt management cell of the Ministry of Finance's Department of Economic Affairs has been bringing out a quarterly report on debt management regularly since FY11.

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Edited by Manoj Sharma