Nhai To Call Back Bonds

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in a bid to bring down interest burden on funds raised for its National Highways Development Project phase - I under its road infrastructure development programme has initiated a financial re-engineering exercise.

Under the programme NHAI has decided to call back its first Rs 500 crore infrastructure bonds which offered tax benefits under section 54EC of the Income-tax Act.

The bonds were issued in September 2000 and was scheduled to mature in 2007. Instead, NHAI has decided to exercise the call option to reduce outgo on interest.

These bonds exempt under section 54 EC of the Act can only be issued by the National Bank for Rural and Agricultural Development (Nabard) and the NHAI because these bonds are classified as a `long-term specified asset