2023-08-30 18:23:16
According to the expenditure plan prepared by the finance ministry for the current financial year, the funds raised through such bonds will be used to finance green projects worth ₹23,764 crore, he said.
Given that the funds raised will have to be used strictly for green projects, the spending will be kept higher than the actual borrowing to assuage any apprehensions regarding potential misuse of such funds, officials had told ET earlier.
The government might borrow ₹20,000-22,000 crore through such green bonds in this financial year, they had said. To be sure, the government’s overall annual budgetary spending on green projects cutting across sectors would be way above this level.
But such expenditures are not strictly segregated and classified on the basis of the environment-friendly nature of the projects.
However, since the government raised funds via green bonds last fiscal, it had to formally identify certain green projects to be funded by such proceeds. About half of the green bond proceeds are expected to be deployed in railways in 2023-24, followed by projects in new and renewable energy (32%), housing and urban affairs (15%), environment and climate change (1%) and others, according to the expenditure profile firmed up for this fiscal. Railways, new and renewable energy, and housing and urban affairs, too, accounted for a large chunk of the expenditure funded through the green bond proceeds in 2022-23. A final announcement on the exact borrowing size through green bonds for 2023-24 will be declared in September, when the government announces its borrowing plans for the second half of this fiscal.
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