New Delhi: The Centre plans to raise Rs 8 lakh crore through dated securities during April-September period of 2025-26 to fund the revenue gap, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.
Out of gross market borrowing of Rs 14.82 lakh crore estimated for 2025-26, Rs 8 lakh crore, or 54 per cent, is planned to be borrowed in the first half (H1) through issuance of dated securities, including Rs 10,000 crore of Sovereign Green Bonds (SGrBs), an official statement said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget proposed to borrow Rs 14.82 lakh crore by issuing dated securities to meet revenue shortfall in the next financial year.
Fiscal deficit, the gap between the government’s total revenue and total expenditure, is estimated to be 4.4 per cent of GDP for FY26 as compared to 4.8 per cent of the GDP estimated for the current financial year. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit is pegged at Rs 15,68,936 crore for the financial year 2025-26.
To finance the fiscal deficit, the net market borrowings from dated securities are estimated at Rs 11.54 lakh crore. The balance financing is expected to come from small savings and other sources.
“Coming to 2025-26, the total receipts other than borrowings and the total expenditure are estimated at Rs 34.96 lakh crore and Rs 50.65 lakh crore, respectively. The net tax receipts are estimated at Rs 28.37 lakh crore,” Sitharaman had said in her Budget speech.
According to the latest official statement, the gross borrowing would be completed through 26 weekly auctions ranging between Rs 25,000 crore and Rs 36,000 crore.
The market borrowing will be spread over 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 30, 40 and 50 year securities and the share of borrowing (including SGrBs) under different maturities will be 3-year (5.3 per cent), 5-year (11.3 per cent), 7-year (8.2 per cent), 10-year (26.2 per cent), 15-year (14 per cent), 30-year (10.5 per cent), 40-year (14 per cent) and 50-year (10.5 per cent).
The government will carry out switching/buyback of securities to smoothen the redemption profile, it said.
The government will continue to reserve the right to exercise greenshoe option to retain an additional subscription of up to Rs 2,000 crore against each of the securities indicated in the auction notifications, it said.
Weekly borrowing through issuance of Treasury Bills in the first quarter (Q1) of FY 2025-26 is expected to be Rs 19,000 crore for 13 weeks with issuance of Rs 9,000 crore under 91-day T-bill, Rs 5,000 crore under 182-day T-bill and Rs 5,000 crore under 364-day T-bill.
To take care of temporary mismatches in government accounts, it said, the Reserve Bank of India has fixed the Ways and Mean Advances (WMA) limit for H1 of FY 2025-26 at Rs 1.50 lakh crore.