 "Interim Budget 2019: Market borrowing pegged at Rs 4.48 trillion for FY20")
The government will borrow Rs 4.48 trillion from the market in 2019-20, marginally higher than the Rs 4.47 trillion estimated for the current financial year ending March 2019.
According to the Revised Estimate, the net borrowing for the current financial year was raised to Rs 4.47 trillion as against the Budget Estimate of Rs 4.07 trillion.
Budget 2019-20 documents showed that gross borrowing would be Rs 7.1 trillion for 2019-20, higher than Rs 5.71 lakh crore estimated this year. Gross borrowing includes repayments of past loans.
Repayment for past loans in the next financial year has been pegged at Rs 2.36 trillion. Government raises funds from the market to fund its fiscal deficit through dated securities and Treasury bills. Presenting the Budget, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said fiscal deficit for the current financial year is expected to be slightly higher at 3.4 per cent.
For 2019-20, the government also retains the fiscal deficit at 3.4 per cent of the gross domestic product.
"We would have maintained fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent for year 2018-19 and taken further steps to consolidate fiscal deficit in year 2019-20. However, considering the need for income support to farmers, we have provided Rs 20,000 crore in 2018-19 RE (Revised Estimate) and Rs 75,000 crore in 2019-20 BE (Budget Estimate).
"If we exclude this, the fiscal deficit would have been less than 3.3 per cent for 2018-19 and less than 3.1 per cent for year 2019-20," Goyal said in his Budget Speech. From the high of almost 6 per cent seven years ago, he said, the fiscal deficit has been brought down to 3.4 per cent in 2018-19 RE.