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Govt rules out additional borrowing plan

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Press Trust of India Mumbai

The government today ruled out additional borrowing in the current fiscal.

"No additional borrowing than what we had already planned," Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla said, after attending the High Level Coordination Commmittee meeting on Financial Markets here today.

The borrowing by the government this year is estimated at Rs 4,51,000 crore in the current financial year as against Rs 3,06,000 crore in the previous year.

Chawla said that ballooning inflation warrants administrative actions, rather than action by way of policy instruments.

"Essentially this (high inflation), requires administrative action in terms of the response to make available essential commodities and food products," Chawla said.

 

The Reserve Bank is widely expected to raise its policy rates and CRR to tighten liquidity starting next month. But Chawla argued policy instruments are unlikely to play any major role in containing the current inflation.

"Food inflation is a larger part of the inflation now... therefore not much can be done policy instruments," Chawla said.

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First Published: Dec 21 2009 | 7:31 PM IST

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