RBI Rationalised External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) Policy - (27 Apr 2018)

Banking

In light of requests received from corporates and other entities and in administering the ECB regime, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided, in consultation with the Government of India, to further rationalise and liberalize the ECB guidelines. RBI has decided to permit Housing Finance Companies, regulated by the National Housing Bank, Port Trusts constituted under the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 or Indian Ports Act, 1908, as eligible borrowers to avail of ECB’s under all tracks. Such entities shall have a board approved risk management policy and shall keep their ECB exposure hedged 100 per cent at all times for ECB’s raised under Track I. Companies engaged in the business of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul and freight forwarding to raise ECB’s denominated in INR only.

In order to harmonise the extant provisions of Foreign Currency and Rupee ECB’s and RDB’s, it has been decided to stipulate a uniform all-in-cost ceiling of 450 basis points over the benchmark rate. The benchmark rate will be 6 month USD London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) (or applicable benchmark for respective currency) for Track I and Track II, while it will be prevailing yield of the Government of India securities of corresponding maturity for Track III (Rupee ECB’s) and RDB’s. Further, RBI has decided to increase the ECB Liability to Equity Ratio for ECB raised from direct foreign equity holder under the automatic route to 7:1. This ratio will not be applicable, if total of all ECBs raised by an entity is up to USD 5 million or equivalent.

At present, a positive end-use list is prescribed for Track I and specified category of borrowers, while negative end-use list is prescribed for Track II and III. RBI has now been decided to have only a negative list for all tracks. The negative list for all Tracks would include the Investment in real estate or purchase of land except when used for affordable housing as defined in Harmonised Master List of Infrastructure Sub-sectors notified by Government of India, construction and development of SEZ and industrial parks/integrated townships, Investment in capital market, Equity investment. Transactions on account of External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) and Trade Credit are governed by Clause (d) of Sub-section 3 of Section 6 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA)

Tags : INVESTMENT POLICY RATIONALISATION