Ruling out any additional borrowing in the remaining part of the current fiscal, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram today said the Government will be able to accommodate the enhanced outgo within the present limit.
“Rs 28,500 crore of petroleum subsidy, about Rs 2,000 crore for infusion of equity in Air India and Rs 300-odd crore for some small items. So this amount we think we can accommodate within the present borrowing limit,” he told presspersons outside Parliament.
“We don’t think at this moment we need to borrow anything more than what is indicated,” he added.
The Government had budgeted market borrowing at Rs 5.7 lakh crore during the current fiscal to bridge the expenditure-revenue gap.
The Finance Minister had earlier said the fiscal deficit may go up to 5.3 per cent of GDP as against the Budget estimate of 5.1 per cent for the current financial year.
In the first half (April-September) of 2012-13, the fiscal deficit rose to Rs 3.37 lakh crore, which was 65.6 per cent of the budget estimate.
The Government has already borrowed Rs 3.7 lakh crore in the first half ending September 30, which is 65 per cent of the total planned borrowing.
The front-loading of borrowing was done as part of its strategy to make available capital to the private sector in the last six months of 2012-13.
The Government has proposed to raise Rs 2 lakh crore in the second half of the fiscal.
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