Govt to repurchase bonds worth Rs 20,000 cr on Thursday

New Delhi: With cash position at comfortable levels, the government Tuesday said it will repurchase bonds worth Rs 20,000 crore on Thursday.

"The repurchase by the government will be undertaken to redeem prematurely the government stocks by utilising surplus cash balances," Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The repurchase of bonds of 2016 series worth Rs 20,000 crore will be done through reverse auction by utilising the government's surplus cash balance, it said, adding that the auction would take place between 1030-1200 hours on February 4.

Reflecting improvement in government finances, fiscal deficit in the April-December of 2015-16 stood at 88 per cent of the annual target as against 100.2 per cent in the same period last fiscal.

In value terms, the fiscal deficit in nine months stood at Rs 4.88 lakh crore, or 88 per cent, of 2015-16 Budget estimates (BE). This is an improvement over the year-ago period as the deficit then stood at 100.2 per cent of the 2014-15 BE.

The improvement is mainly on account of buoyancy in tax collections, which have kept revenue deficit in check, according to the data by the Controller General of Accounts.

The fiscal deficit -- the gap between the government's expenditure and revenue -- for 2015-16 was pegged at Rs 5.55 lakh crore for the whole year in the Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in February.