INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - MAY 11th - MAY 31st - 2008
EXTERNAL COMMERCIAL BORROWING POLICY MODIFIED
The External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) policy is regularly reviewed by the Government in consultation with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to keep it in tune with the evolving macroeconomic situation, changing market conditions, sectoral requirements, the external sector and lessons of experience.
Consequent upon such a review, it has been decided to modify some aspects of the ECB policy as indicated below:
At present, borrowers proposing to avail ECB up to USD 20 million for Rupee expenditure for permissible end-uses require prior approval of the Reserve Bank under the Approval Route. It has been decided that, henceforth,
(i) borrowers in infrastructure sector may avail ECB up to USD 100 million for Rupee expenditure for permissible end-uses under the Approval Route;
(ii) in the case of other borrowers, the existing limit of USD 20 million for Rupee expenditure for permissible end-uses under the Approval Route has been enhanced to USD 50 million.
The all-in-cost ceilings in respect of ECB are modified as follows:
| Average Maturity Period |
All-in-Cost ceilings over 6 Months LIBOR |
| - |
Existing |
Proposed |
| Three years and up to five years |
150 bps |
200 bps |
| More than five years |
250 bps |
350 bps |
The above changes will apply to ECB both under the automatic route and the approval route.
All other aspects of ECB policy such as USD 500 million limit per company per year under the Automatic Route, eligible borrower, recognised lender, end-use of foreign currency expenditure for import of capital goods and overseas investments, average maturity period, prepayment, refinancing of existing ECB and reporting arrangements remain unchanged.
The above amendments in ECB policy will come into force on the date of Notification of Regulations / directions issued by the Reserve Bank in this regard under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.
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