Mumbai: Banking system liquidity turned into deficit Monday for the first time in three months, as liquidity was drained due to advance tax outflows. System liquidity stood at a deficit of ₹19,971 crore, versus a surplus of ₹30,685 crore the previous day.Consequently, call rates stood at 5.35% on Monday. Policy rates are at 5.25%. In June, the daily average liquidity was in a surplus of ₹1.11 lakh crore, versus ₹1.62 lakh crore in May. During the quarterly advance tax outflows, around ₹2 lakh crore exit from the banking system, economists estimate."The current deficit is majorly because of advance tax outflows. There was no intervention that impacted liquidity because the currency has now been appreciating after the FCNR(B) and ECB package," said Gaura Sengupta, chief economist at IDFC First Bank.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has regularly conducted variable rate repo (VRR) operations in the past fortnight to counter the temporary outflow, central bank data showed. The latest VRR operation, with a tenure of 7 days for ₹2 lakh crore, received bids of ₹1.41 lakh crore.The RBI will also conduct a ₹30,000 crore buyback of government securities on June 29.