Government’s External Liabilities Cross $ 558 Billion

Government’s external liabilities cross $ 558 billion, buoyancy in commercial borrowing. Total external liabilities to the government increased to $ 558.5 billion at the end of March this year. According to the Finance Ministry, this liability increased due to the boom in commercial borrowing.

The figure stood at $ 543 billion at the end of March last year. At the end of March this year, external liabilities rose to 20.6 percent of GDP, from 19.8 percent in the same period last year.

In the ‘External Debt of India: Status Report – 2019-20’ released by the Finance Ministry, it said that the government’s debt this year was down by three percent to $ 100.9 billion as compared to the end of March last year.

The main reason for this was that the share of foreign institutional investment in government securities decreased. According to the report, non-financial institutions were at the forefront of taking loans.

31% drop in direct tax collection

The government said on Saturday that direct tax collection of Rs 1.92 lakh crore was made between April and August in the current financial year. This is 31 percent less than the same period of the previous financial year.

Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur told the Lok Sabha that indirect tax collection also fell by 11 percent to Rs 3.42 lakh crore from April to August.

He also said that no decision has been taken to stop the printing of 2,000 rupee notes. Thakur said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha that keeping in view the demand, the government decides on printing a note after consulting the Reserve Bank to balance the availability of all the notes.

In the case of GST compensation, the non-BJP state governments are not accepting the central government formula, then the politics is definitely working behind it but there is more to it.

It is a fact that in the first two years of the current fiscal year, the states have taken loans from the market so much that it may be difficult for them to bear any kind of additional debt.

According to RBI data, GST was implemented in July 2017 and in that year all the states jointly took a loan of Rs 4.21 lakh crore which has increased by 47.7 percent to Rs 6.22 lakh crore in 2019-20. It is set to increase significantly in the current financial year.