The Finance Ministry said Monday that the sole reason of forcing the government to borrow was the requirement to pay Rs.1 trillion in interest on past loans in just during the period from July to October. This amount was on top of Rs 4.7 trillion already paid by this government prior to June, bringing the total amount of interest paid on past loans to a staggering Rs 5.7 trillion, the ministry said in a statement. It clarified that the government had inherited a precarious debt situation which it managed with discipline, aggressive control of expenses and increase in tax and non-tax revenues. The government efforts yielded primary surplus and only the payment of interest on past loans had forced the government to borrow at all, the statement added. In the current fiscal year, the statement added, the government had succeeded in keeping the stock of public debt firmly in check with virtually no increase.