(With inputs from agencies)

Govt borrowed Rs 3.72 lakh crore in H1FY18

NEW DELHI: The government is set to borrow additional Rs 50,000 crore ($7.79 billion) in 2017-18 fiscal year that ends in March, according to an official statement released on Wednesday, which could widen the country's fiscal deficit The additional market borrowings of Rs 50,000 crore to be done through dated Government securities G-Sec ), the statement added.It further stated that "the government will trim down the T-Bills (Treasury bill) from present collections of Rs 86,203 crore to Rs 25,006 crore by March end."The borrowing programme has been reviewed with Reserve Bank of India (RBI)."The government will thus, between now and March 2018, not be raising any net additional borrowing (T-Bills will be run down by Rs 61,203 crore and additional G-Sec borrowing will be Rs 50,000 crore)," the statement further said.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier budgeted to raise Rs 5.8 lakh crore ($90.45 billion) in 2017-18 via bond sales to bridge the fiscal deficit of 3.2 per cent of GDP.The move comes against the backdrop of low revenue collections. The Goods and services tax (GST) collections dipped to Rs 80,808 crore in November, the lowest since the introduction of the new regime in July, following reduction in rates for over 200 items in the second half of the month.The revised G-Sec borrowing would be Rs 15,000 crore each last five weekly auctions of this fiscal ending on February 9, 2018. And, the revised T-Bill borrowing will be Rs 14,000 crore each in first 13 weeks of 2018 ending on March 28.