ECB rules to be eased soon

The government may liberalise external commercial borrowing rules in the next few days, especially for the infrastructure sector including capital-intensive ones like telecom, a Finance Ministry official said on Friday.

The Finance Ministry has already sought the Reserve Bank of India's comments on a demand from mobile operators for a one-time waiver on raising funds via the ECB route to pay for auctions of spectrum for third generation mobile services.

The rules, which had been tightened last year following a surge in forex inflows in real estate in particular, have been under review for some time in the light of tighter money markets and the need for companies to access cost-effective funds to expand in what is Asia's third largest economy.

At present, the restrictions include one limiting non-infrastructure sector firms to raising $50 million per year, that too only to meet obligations that need to be paid in foreign exchange. For infrastructure firms, the limit is $100 million a year. 

Earlier this year, the finance ministry reduced the all-in-cost ceilings to 350 basis points per year over the six-month London Inter Bank Offered Rate from 250 basis points for a tenor of more than five years.

Finance ministry officials said several other financial sector reforms that have also been in the works for some time will also take place, adding that the overseas financial sector meltdown is an opportunity to do so.

"In a way, the developments vindicate India's cautious policy and regulatory stance. There is space for India to emerge stronger," the official said today.

For the past two days, the department of economic affairs in the ministry of finance has been assessing the exposure of the Indian financial system to the global financial system, especially the United States, following the bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest US investment bank.

Armed with the assessment, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, accompanied by his officials, briefed the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today about the global developments and the impact on India. The meeting was convened at the ministry's behest and was intended to put things in perspective for the ministers.

"As far as the direct impact on the Indian securities market is concerned, I can confidently tell you that there is absolutely none. There is some impact on liquidity, but that can be managed," another finance ministry official said.

On Thursday, Chidambaram had said the government was prepared to take more steps to provide liquidity if cash conditions were tight in the system.

Stating that the global financial sector turmoil would partly impact credit availability in India, he indicated that prudential norms for exposure to derivatives may need to be tightened by the Reserve Bank of India.

He had also emphasised that India banks had strong balance sheets and were well regulated.