What a 'WMA day' actually means

Ways and Means Advances (WMA) and Overdraft (OD) are short-term loans the RBI gives a state to cover days when the cash balance runs dry. A "WMA day" is simply a calendar day the state spent on this emergency credit. Two things to know: WMA/OD days are counted on the **calendar year**, not the fiscal year — so they must never be lined up against fiscal-year figures by the year label. And the healthy norm is **no more than 60 such days a year**; beyond that signals recurring cash stress. **Why this matters to you:** a rising WMA-day count is an early warning that the treasury is repeatedly running out of cash, well before it shows up in the annual deficit numbers.