RBI raises foreign investment limits in bonds, tweaks rules

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India on Monday increased the investment limits by foreign investors in government bonds by 110 billion rupees ($1.70 billion) to 2.42 trillion rupees, while also tweaking rules to attract more long-term investments.

As part of the additional limits, the RBI increased the limits for the "general" category by 28 billion rupees to 1.88 trillion rupees, and the limits for the "long-term" category by 82 billion rupees to 543 billion rupees.

The revisions will be effective from July 4, 2017, RBI added.

As part of its occasional changes to investment rules, the RBI also said 75 percent of the future increases in limits for foreign investors will be allocated to the "long-term" category and 25 percent for "general."

The RBI added it would end the practice of transferring unutilised limits from the "long-term" category to the "general" category.

For full statement see: http://bit.ly/2sEWHjY

($1 = 64.8500 rupees)

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy; Editing by Rafael Nam)