New Delhi| The debt or liabilities of the central government as on March 31 is estimated to be around Rs 155.8 lakh crore (57.3 per cent of GDP), Parliament was informed on Monday. Of this, the external debt at current exchange rates is estimated at Rs 7.03 lakh crore (2.6 per cent of GDP), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
The reply said- The share of external debt is about 4.5 per cent of the total debt/liabilities of the Central Government and less than 3 per cent of the GDP. External debt is mostly financed by multilateral and bilateral agencies at concessional rates, and hence, the risk profile is safe and prudent.
The minister also said that the RBI, in consultation with the government, has recently announced several measures to diversify and expand sources of foreign currency funding to reduce exchange rate volatility and global spillovers. Some of such measures include maintenance of Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) for deposits raised till November 4, 2022. NRE) includes waiver of deposit liabilities.
Also, fresh FCNR (B) and NRE deposits were exempted from the existing regulation on interest rates – interest rates not to exceed those offered by banks on comparable domestic rupee fixed deposits up to October 31, 2022. The response also states that the regulatory regime relating to foreign portfolio investment in debt flows has been modified to encourage foreign investment in Indian debt instruments.
The External Commercial Borrowings limit (under the automatic route) has been increased to $1.5 billion and the all-in-cost limit has been increased by 100 basis points in select cases till December 31, 2022. In order to promote the growth of exports from India and to support the growing interest of the global business community in the Indian Rupee, the RBI has on July 11, 2022 introduced an additional mechanism for invoicing, payment and settlement of exports/imports in Indian Rupees. is of.
–IANS
