New overseas borrowing policy by November-end: Das

Companies would be able to borrow up to $50 million in ECBs with three-year maturities and more than that for five-year maturities

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in the final stages of firming up its views on liberalisation of external commercial borrowing (ECB) norms and will submit the guidelines within 10 days, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said on Thursday, adding that that a new ECB policy would be announced by November-end.

Speaking at an event in New Delhi , Das said the draft bankruptcy law would be ready within a week and the government is in the final stages of restructuring debt of power distribution companies.

"The RBI has already put a discussion paper in the public domain. Comments have come in. RBI is examining it and in about a week's time or 10 days we will receive it. We will go through it in the finance ministry and, hopefully, with everything going all right, I think before the end of November the liberalisation measure relating to ECB would be announced," Das said.

The RBI had released a draft paper that allowed Indian companies to raise funds from a wider class of lenders last month. It said companies would now be able to borrow up to $50 million in ECBs with three-year maturities and more than $50 million for five-year maturities, from the earlier $20 million.

According to the proposal, companies can now take the ECB route for raising 10-year funds, which is capped at five years now. Overseas regulated financial entities, pension funds, insurance funds, sovereign wealth funds and other long-term investors are included in the list of recognised lenders for long-term funding into India.

The draft paper also said RBI would allow real estate and infrastructure investment trusts to raise rupee-denominated funds offshore, a step likely to provide relief to the cash-strapped sector.

Speaking on the proposed bankruptcy law, Das said: "It (the bankruptcy law) is a work in progress. The committee is preparing the draft legislation. The recommendation and the first cut of the draft legislation should be available to us in about a week to 10 days."

He added that once the law is in place, India's ease of doing business ranking would increase substantially.

A day after the US Federal Reserve maintained its status quo on interest rates, Das said the move would give emerging markets more space in terms of capital inflows, and added that India was better prepared than before to a Fed policy reversal.

"But, we do have certain challenges. As a government we continue to remain very watchful because none of the crises were really predicted," Das added.

The US Central Bank's Federal Open Market Committee held interest rates in the face of persistent threats from a weak international economy and excessively low inflation.It, however, indicated that it would hike interest rates by December.

An interest rate hike by the Fed is widely expected to lead to capital flight, putting pressure on forex reserves and the value of Indian currency.