Govt raises borrowing to Rs 2.99 lakh cr

"We have already done and announced Rs 1,89,000 crore (Rs 1.89 trillion). So, the balance is Rs 1,10,000 crore (Rs 1.1 trillion) which we are going to be doing up to September 30 in 10 tranches," RBI Deputy Governor Shyamala Gopinath said after meeting Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla and other officials.

The government had earlier estimated borrowing to be at Rs 2.41 lakh crore for the first half of the current fiscal.

Allaying fears of disruption in the market due to the government's borrowing plan, she said, "We would be managing this programme in a non-disruptive manner."

She added that "there is ample liquidity in the system". Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Budget had raised the country's gross borrowing plan to Rs 4.51 lakh crore for the fiscal 2009-10, thus pegging fiscal deficit at 6.8 per cent of the GDP for the year.

The ministry officials said that initially the sale of bonds would be for about Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) per week and would later taper off in the last few weeks of September.

As regard to open market operations (OMO), which is a system through which the central bank sucks out or injects liquidity into the system against government papers, she said the Reserve Bank would continue the operations as announced.