Govt debt crosses ₹100 lakh crore for the first time.

The central government's total debt crossed the ₹100 lakh crore mark for the first time at the end of the June quarter.

According to a quarterly report by the Department of Economic Affairs, the government's total liabilities increased by ₹6.73 lakh crore or 7.1% against a 0.8% increase in the previous March-end quarter, totaling it to ₹101.3 lakh crore from that of ₹94.6 lakh crore in the last quarter.

Out of the total outstanding liability at the end of June, public debt made up for 91.1%. Approximately, 28.6% of the outstanding dated securities had a residual maturity of fewer than 5 years and the ownership pattern indicated a share of 39% for commercial banks and that 26.2% for insurance companies.

Centre issues securities worth over ₹3 lakh crore.

The finance ministry's quarterly report also showed the Centre issuing dated securities aggregating ₹3,46,000 crore in the current quarter which was much higher than the ₹2,26,000 crore issued during the previous year.

The RBI also conducted a special open market operation involving simultaneous buying and selling back of government securities for ₹10,000 crores each during the June quarter.

“The net average liquidity absorption by RBI under Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF), including Marginal Standing Facility and Special Liquidity Facility, was ₹4,51,045 crore during the quarter,” reports said.

The reports also showed that the Central government dated securities continued to account for a major part of total trading volumes in the secondary market with a share of 74% in total outright trading volumes in value terms during the previous quarter.