The Government of India has announced a conversion, or switch, of government securities through auction for an aggregate face value of ₹30,000 crore. The Reserve Bank of India said the auction will be conducted on July 20, 2026, through its Core Banking Solution platform, e-Kuber.
In a switch auction, market participants sell specified existing securities to the Government of India and simultaneously buy specified destination securities from it. The RBI release said participants must enter the amount of the source security and the prices of both the source and destination securities in Indian rupees, up to two decimal places.
The auction will follow a multiple-price format. This means successful bids will be accepted at the respective prices quoted by participants for the source and destination securities.
Auction schedule and settlement
Bids have to be submitted electronically on the e-Kuber platform on Monday, July 20, 2026, between 10:30 AM and 11:30 AM. The RBI said the result of the auction will be announced on the same day.
Settlement will take place on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. The operational guidelines state that settlement of the auction will be on a T+1 basis.
The government has reserved the right to accept offers for less than the notified amount. It may also purchase marginally more than the notified amount because of rounding-off. It can accept or reject any or all offers, wholly or partly, without assigning any reason.
Security-wise switch details
The notified source securities and destination securities for the July 20 auction are as follows:
- ₹4,000 crore of 6.79% GS 2027, maturing on May 15, 2027, will be switched into 6.19% GS 2034, maturing on September 16, 2034.
- ₹4,000 crore of 6.64% GS 2027, maturing on December 9, 2027, will be switched into 6.67% GS 2035, maturing on December 15, 2035.
- ₹3,000 crore of 7.17% GS 2028, maturing on January 8, 2028, will be switched into 7.50% GS 2034, maturing on August 10, 2034.
- ₹5,000 crore of 7.06% GS 2028, maturing on April 10, 2028, will be switched into 7.62% GS 2039, maturing on September 15, 2039.
- ₹2,000 crore of 8.60% GS 2028, maturing on June 2, 2028, will be switched into 7.50% GS 2034, maturing on August 10, 2034.
- ₹3,000 crore of 7.37% GS 2028, maturing on October 23, 2028, will be switched into 6.64% GS 2035, maturing on June 16, 2035.
- ₹5,000 crore of 7.10% GS 2029, maturing on April 18, 2029, will be switched into 6.64% GS 2035, maturing on June 16, 2035.
- ₹4,000 crore of 7.88% GS 2030, maturing on March 19, 2030, will be switched into 7.10% GS 2034, maturing on April 8, 2034.
How bids will be placed
Market participants can place bids through the Switch Transaction module on the e-Kuber portal. Each bid must specify the face value amount of the source security the participant is willing to sell, the price of that source security, the selected destination security, and the price at which the participant is willing to buy the destination security.
Participants may bid for any or all destination securities. However, the aggregate amount of bids for a source security cannot exceed their holdings of that source security in face value terms.
The minimum bid size will be ₹10,000, and bids must be in multiples of ₹10,000 thereafter. Multiple bids are allowed, but the total amount submitted cannot exceed the notified amount of the source security or basket of source securities in the auction.
Pricing and allotment rules
The price quoted for the source security must be equal to the FBIL closing price of that security on the previous working day. The RBI said bids for source securities that do not follow this pricing condition will be rejected.
The auction cut-off will be decided on the basis of the price of the destination securities. Bidders who quote at or above the cut-off price will be treated as successful. Bids below the cut-off price will be rejected. If more than one successful bid is placed at the cut-off price, pro-rata allotment may be used.
The switch ratio will be calculated as the ratio of the source security price to the destination security price and rounded to eight decimal places. The destination security amount to be issued for a successful bid will be calculated using this rounded switch ratio and then rounded down to the nearest multiple of ₹10,000.
For odd amounts of destination securities below ₹10,000 that are rounded off, the guidelines say these will be notionally allotted and bought back from the bidders at the quoted bid price of the destination security.
Fund settlement
The RBI said the conversion will be broadly cash neutral, but fund settlement will still be carried out for net accrued interest for each bid. Any cash consideration arising from rounding off the face value of destination securities will be added to the net accrued interest. The final amount for settlement will therefore be net accrued interest plus cash consideration.
For technical issues, the Core Banking Operations Team can be contacted on 022-69870466 and 022-69870415. For other auction-related issues, the IDMD auction team can be contacted on 022-22702431 and 22705125.
Source: Reserve Bank of India Press Releases.