Govt mobilises Rs 5.77 lakh crore by issuing dated securities till Jul 31: FM

The government has mobilised a gross amount of Rs 5.77 lakh crore by issuing dated securities in the current financial year up to July 31, 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

It has raised a net amount of Rs 4.18 lakh crore through the instrument in the same period.

Government borrowing is done through various sources, including dated securities, treasury bills, external loans and state provident funds.

The central government has planned to raise net debt resources of Rs 17.99 lakh crore from various sources in 2023-24, mainly to finance its fiscal deficit, the finance minister said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

”This amount is about 40 per cent of the total net size of the Union Budget 2023-24 of Rs 45.03 lakh crore,” she said.

The government plans a gross market borrowing of Rs 15.4 lakh crore from dated securities in FY24. This is higher than the total borrowing of Rs 14.21 lakh crore in FY23.

She said that borrowing by entities like the National Highway Authority of India is on the strength of their own balance sheet.

Replying to another question, Sitharaman said banks and financial institutions are required to submit the list of wilful defaulters of Rs 25 lakh and above to credit information companies (CICs), and CICs have also been advised to disseminate the information pertaining to suit filed accounts of wilful defaulters on their respective websites as per the RBI guidelines. Accordingly, she said, lists of suit-filed wilful defaulters of Rs 25 lakh and above are available in the public domain on the websites of Credit Information Companies (CICs).

Further, as per the RBI’s instructions, wilful defaulters are not sanctioned any additional facilities by banks or financial institutions, and their unit is debarred from institutional finance for floating new ventures for five years. Wilful defaulters and companies with wilful defaulters as promoters/directors have been debarred from accessing capital markets to raise funds, she said, adding the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 has debarred wilful defaulters from participating in the insolvency resolution process. The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) have declined in the last three financial years from Rs 8,35,051 crore (gross NPA ratio of 7.33 per cent) as on March 31, 2021, to Rs 7,42,397 crore (gross NPA ratio of 5.82 per cent) as on March 31, 2022, and further to Rs 5,71,515 crore (gross NPA ratio of 3.87 per cent) as on March 31, 2023, she said.

In another reply, the finance minister said the RBI has apprised that it does not maintain data in respect of the amount written-off in accounts which were declared as fraud. However, she said, as per RBI data on the fraud based on the date of occurrence, amount involved in fraud in Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) in respect of amount involved of Rs 1 lakh and above has declined from Rs 12,819.57 crore in the financial year (FY) 2020-21 to Rs 6,979.72 crore in FY 2021-22 to Rs 1,650.27 crore in FY 2022-23.

With regard to the actions taken against cases of fraud, banks are required to lodge complaints immediately upon detection of fraud with law enforcement agencies. The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has apprised that as on July 28, 2023, it has taken up 848 bank fraud cases, involving both public and private sector banks for investigation under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). Necessary action as per the provisions of PMLA has been taken, which resulted in the attachment of proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 62,179 crore approx, she said. Further, 112 persons have been arrested in these cases and 195 prosecution complaints have been filed before the PMLA special court. Also, assets amounting to Rs 15,113.02 crore have been confiscated and restituted to the PSBs in these cases, she added.