Legislative Strategy for Setting up an Independent Debt Management Agency

Legislative Strategy for Setting up an Independent Debt Management Agency

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Volume 10 Issue 3 ()

The Public Debt Management Agency is a body that issues public debt with the objective of keeping long term costs of government borrowing low. In India, the existing legal framework obliges the government to give the task of managing its debt to the Reserve Bank of India. Pursuant to its role as debt manager, the Reserve Bank of India set up market infrastructure, such as an exchange and a depository. Carve-outs were made in the regulation of securities to allow the Reserve Bank of India to regulate the bond market. Over the last twenty years, the proposal to establish an independent Public Debt Management Agency has been repeatedly put forward. In this paper, we work out the legal strategy to set up a Public Debt Management Agency. We show the transition path for the roll out and for the movement of the functions, accounts, records and systems to the new agency in a phased manner.

Cite as: Radhika Pandey & Ila Patnaik, Legislative Strategy for Setting up an Independent Debt Management Agency, 10 NUJS L. Rev. 395 (2017)