Finance Ministry, RBI officials to meet on March 18 to decide FY17 borrowing calendar

Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials will meet on March 18 to decide on the borrowing calendar of the government for April-September period of the next fiscal.

In the Budget 2016, the government has pegged gross market borrowing at Rs 6 lakh crore, up from Rs 5.8 lakh crore in the ongoing fiscal. Gross borrowing includes repayments of past loans and interests.

"The market borrowing calendar for the first half of next fiscal would be decided on March 18. RBI and Finance Ministry will take a call on whether to front-load the borrowing in such a manner that it is non-disruptive," a source said.

As per the Budget 2016, the net borrowings from the market in next fiscal would be Rs 4.2 lakh crore, down from Rs 4.4 lakh crore in the current fiscal.

The government borrows from markets to meet its fiscal deficit, which is the difference between revenue receipts plus Non-debt Capital Receipts and the total expenditure.

It issues treasury bills, bonds and dated securities to finance the deficit.

The Budget 2016 has pegged fiscal deficit for 2016-17 at 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) or nearly Rs 5.34 lakh crore.