The government plans to borrow Rs 7.1 lakh crore this year.
MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: India’s foreign currency borrowing programme is likely to start small with an offer in the second half of the year and will probably be below $10 billion cumulatively in the current financial year.
“We can afford definitely to add something of the sovereign bond portfolio. I don’t see a very large programme and it’s not advisable — it will be a small programme. How much it would be — 5 per cent or 10 per cent — of our borrowing or a little more is something to be decided,” said finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg. “I don’t think it will be necessary and advisable to go anything beyond this. A 10 per cent programme for Rs 7 lakh crore is about Rs 70,000 crore, which is about $10 billion.” The government plans to borrow Rs 7.1 lakh crore this year. If it raises money offshore, that will reduce domestic borrowing, easing conditions for other borrowers.
