KARACHI: The government’s borrowings during the first quarter (July-September) of this fiscal year touched Rs513 billion, the State Bank said on Tuesday.

During the same quarter of the last fiscal, the government’s borrowings from the SBP were negative Rs271bn.

“The public borrowing from the banking system is still over half a trillion rupees though the State Bank was assured that borrowings would be zero at the end of each quarter,” an SBP source said.

The SBP reported that the government has borrowed more than the previous government for budgetary support during the first quarter. According to latest data of the central bank, borrowings for budgetary support during July-Sept 27 were Rs262bn compared with Rs197bn in the same period a year earlier.

The only visible change is that the net borrowings from commercial banks were still negative (Rs191bn) compared with Rs548bn in the same period last year.

The previous government remained under fire because of heavy borrowings from the banking system that widened the fiscal deficit to more than eight per cent in FY13.

The current government seems to be following the same path with no sign of improving the economy already burdened with domestic and external debts.

Announcing the Monetary Policy last month, the Governor State Bank Yaseen Anwar said the government promised to bring the borrowings from the central bank to zero by the end of each quarter.

It is believed that this is one condition attached with the IMF agreement, signed in first week of September.

The present government has not shown any indication to deviate from earlier practice of depending on bank borrowings. Instead, the borrowings are more reckless than the previous trend.

Despite various measures to generate more revenue like enhanced taxes, the government has not yet presented a clear roadmap for higher economic growth that would ultimately increase the revenue.