The State government has decided to raise market borrowings of ₹500 crore. It has put up an indent for raising the amount through auction of securities to be conducted by the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday. The development assumes significance as the State is inching closer to the limit on borrowings imposed by the Union Finance Ministry.
The Union Ministry, in response to a query, said that the borrowing limit of the State for 2023-24 was set at ₹57,813.99 crore. However, as the State government had over-borrowed in the preceding financial years, the gross borrowing limit of the State had been fixed at ₹42,225 crore after adjusting over borrowing of ₹15,588 crore of previous years.
Of the limit set by the Union Finance Ministry, the State had opted for negotiated loans of ₹1,500 crore and estimated borrowing from the public account was ₹4,107 crore, leaving a space for mobilising the remaining ₹36,617 crore from the open market.
The Ministry said the limit had been arrived as per the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission as well as the guidelines for annual borrowing ceiling. Given this background, the State had already mobilised ₹33,378 crore till October end, according to the provisional information released by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. In addition, it went for open market borrowings of another ₹3,000 crore in the auction of securities conducted by the RBI during November taking the total to ₹36,378 crore.
This means that the State can borrow around ₹300 crore for the remaining part of the financial year, but the State had submitted an indent for ₹500 crore.
