Government's total liabilities rise 2% to Rs 128.41 lakh crore in December quarter

The government's total liabilities rose to Rs 128.41 lakh crore in December quarter from Rs 125.71 lakh crore in the three months ended September 2021, according to the latest public debt management report.

The increase reflects a quarter-on-quarter increase of 2.15 percent in October-December 2021-22.

In absolute terms, the total liabilities, including liabilities under the 'Public Account' of the government, jumped to Rs 1,28,41,996 crore at the end of December 2021. As of September 30, the total liabilities stood at Rs 1,25,71,747 crore.

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The report released by the finance ministry on Monday said public debt accounted for 91.60 percent of the total outstanding liabilities in December quarter compared to 91.15 percent at the end of September.

Nearly 25 percent of the outstanding dated securities had a residual maturity of less than 5 years.

The ownership pattern of the central government securities indicates that the share of commercial banks stood at 35.40 per cent at end-December 2021, lower than 37.82 per cent at end-September 2021.

"Share of insurance companies and provident funds at end-December 2021 stood at 25.74 percent and 4.33 percent, respectively. Share of mutual funds was 3.08 per cent at the end of quarter December 2021 as against 2.91 per cent at the end of quarter September 2021. Share of RBI went downward at 16.92 percent at end-December 2021 from 16.98 per cent at end-September 2021," it said.

The central government issued dated securities worth Rs 2,88,000 crore as against Rs 2,83,975 crore in Q3 of FY21, while repayments were at Rs 75,300 crore, it said.

During the quarter, it said, yields on government securities hardened across the curve.

On domestic front, it said, market was largely disappointed by discontinuation of Government Securities Acquisition Plan by the RBI in third quarter. The spread of Omicron variant of coronavirus to most parts of the country led to apprehension of additional borrowings as well as higher retail inflation also affected the sentiments.

The yields on the 10-year benchmark security increased from 6.22 per cent at the end of September quarter to 6.45 per cent at the end of third quarter, thus hardening by 23 basis points during October-December, it said.

However, the yields were supported by decision of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to keep the policy repo rate unchanged at 4 percent, to continue with accommodative stance during Q3 FY22.