The government is likely to set its target of borrowing from the banking system at Tk 383 billion to finance the budget deficit partly for the next fiscal year (FY) 2015-16, officials said.
"The government will borrow the money from all the scheduled banks through issuing Treasury Bills (T-bills) and Bangladesh Government Treasury Bonds (BGTBs) to finance partly its would-be budget deficit - the difference between its overall expenditure and revenue and other receipts - for the FY 16," a senior official associated with public debt management-related activities told the FE Wednesday.
He also said the government's budgetary expenditure may rise as implementation of different development projects, particularly the infrastructural ones, will be strengthened in the next fiscal year.
Currently, the government is implementing various mega infrastructure projects including Padma Multipurpose Bridge, deep-sea port at Sonadia in Cox's Bazar, Dhaka-Chittagong Access Control Highway and Dhaka City Elevated Expressway that would help boost economic growth potential.
However, the government's net bank borrowing is still at a negative level worth Tk 4.24 billion as on May 19 last due mainly to abnormal growth of the savings certificate sales.
The government repaid Tk 4.24 billion more than fresh borrowing from the banking system during the period under review. The payment amount was Tk 518.50 million in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the latest statistics of the central bank.
The official also said lower implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) has also contributed to the negative level of net borrowing from the banking system.
The execution of programmes under the development budget was reported at 55 per cent in the first 10 months of the FY 15 to the end of April.
The government earlier targeted borrowing of a total Tk 312.21 billion from the banking system through T-bills and BGTBs for part-financing of the budget deficit for the FY 15.
Currently, three T-bills are being auctioned to adjust the government borrowings from the banking system. The T-bills have 91-day, 182-day and 364-day maturity periods.
Furthermore, five government bonds, with two, five, 10, 15 and 20 years' duration, are being traded in the market.
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