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The government’s total liabilities rose to ₹150.95 lakh crore in December quarter from ₹147.19 lakh crore in the three months ended September 2022, according to the latest public debt management report. The increase reflects a quarter-on-quarter increase of 2.6% in October-December 2022-23.
In absolute terms, the total liabilities, including liabilities under the ‘Public Account’ of the government, jumped to ₹1,50,95,970.8 crore at the end of December 2022. As of September 30, the total liabilities stood at ₹1,47,19,572.2 crore.
The report released by the Finance Ministry on April 1 said public debt accounted for 89% of the total outstanding liabilities in December quarter, compared to 89.1% at the end of September. Nearly 28.29% of the outstanding dated securities had a residual maturity of less than five years.
During Q3 of FY23, it said, the Centre raised an amount worth ₹3,51,000 crore through dated securities, as against notified amount of ₹3,18,000 crore in the borrowing calendar. “During the quarter an amount of ₹85,377.9 crore due for redemption was repaid on maturity date,” it said.
“Weighted average yield of primary issuances hardened to 7.38% in Q3 FY23, from 7.33% in Q2 of FY23,” it added. The weighted average maturity of new issuances of dated securities elongated to 16.56 years in Q3 of FY23, as compared to 15.62 years in Q2 of FY23.
During October-December 2022, it said, the government did not raise any amount through the Cash Management Bills. The Reserve Bank of India did not conduct Open Market operations for government securities during the quarter.
“The net daily average liquidity absorption by RBI under Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) including Marginal Standing Facility and Special Liquidity Facility was at ₹39,604 crore during the quarter,” the report said.
With regard to the yield, the report said, interest rate on 10-year benchmark security softened from 7.40% at the close of the quarter on September 30, 2022 to 7.33% at the close on December 30, 2022, thus softening by 7 bps during the quarter.
On December 7, 2022 the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to hike the policy repo rate by 35 bps, from 5.90% to 6.25% largely with an intention to contain inflation. On February 8, the Reserve Bank of India hiked the key benchmark policy rate by 25 basis points to 6.5%, citing sticky core inflation.
