Union Budget, bond markets and SEBI’s policing blues

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Editor's note: Advait here. You must have read our take on this year’s Union Budget. If not, you can do so here. The capex festival is a great way to fire up the economy. But financing it, as we said, is a big question mark. Not just us, the bond market thinks so too. Now that has implications for all of us. If that sounds ominous, market regulator SEBI’s position on mutual funds is tricky too. Read on. RBI may not play superhero anymore If you noticed, nearly everyone cheered the Union Budget, save for the bond markets. Now that has serious implications for some of us who were among the cheering crowd. Let me explain.As part of the budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that while the fiscal deficit for 2022-23 has been estimated at 6.4%, the government will borrow a whopping Rs 14.9 lakh crore in the coming year. This is higher than analyst expectations of around Rs 12.5 lakh crore in borrowings.The borrowing will come from multiple sources. Around Rs 11.6 lakh crore will be from government securities and …