India's debt estimated to be at 62% of GDP at the end of FY22: Finance Ministry

The Indian government's debt is estimated to be at 62 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) as of March 31, 2022, the Finance Ministry informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.
 
In a written reply, Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary said that the government has taken a series of measures to control the debt burden of the country.
 
"Increasing the buoyancy of tax revenue through improved compliance, mobilisation of resources through monetisation of assets, improving efficiency and effectiveness of public expenditure etc. are the important measures initiated by Government to control the fiscal deficit and the debt burden," Chaudhary said.
 
In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had pegged the Centre's fiscal deficit for financial year 2021-22 at 6.8 per cent of GDP. However, according to Fitch Ratings, the government can better its fiscal deficit target at 6.6 per cent of GDP in FY22 on the back of a stronger-than-expected revenue buoyancy.
 
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To a question on the government's ability to repay the debt, Chaudhary said the Centre's debt is predominantly held in domestic currency and it is capable of repaying it.
 
Responding to a separate question, he said that the Indian economy is expected to grow at 9.5 per cent in FY22 as per the estimates of the Reserve Bank of India.
 
"As per IMF's World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update, October 2021, India is projected to grow at 9.5 per cent in 2021 and 8.5 per cent in 2022, highest among major economies in both the years," Chaudhary said.
 
India's GDP grew at 8.4 per cent in the July-September quarter of FY22, data released last week showed.
 
On Sunday, the Finance Ministry informed that over 3 crore income tax returns have been filed on the new portal of the Income Tax Department, and urged taxpayers who are yet to file their returns for assessment year 2021-22 to do so at the earliest.

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