a. the total amount of external debt at present due to commercial borrowing with break up of the amount borrowed by Indian companies;
b. the steps taken by the Government to control or reduce the burden of increasing commercial borrowings
c. the total amount of external commercial
borrowing by the companies under automatic route and approval rate
d. whether the Government is having any proposal to abolish the automatic route and
e. if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE FOR FINANCE
(SHRI ANURAG SINGH THAKUR)
(a) and (c): The total outstanding External Commercial Borrowings raised by eligible resident entities from recognized non-resident entities as of end-December 2020 is as follows
ECB Route In USD Millions
Approval 47,105
Automatic 1,15,002
Other* 1,833
*Other – Loan issued before 2004, for which information regarding route is not available in the Reserve Bank of India database.
(b): RBI in consultation with the Government has brought out a revised ECB framework in January 2019. The extant framework limits the “all-in-cost” of borrowing, including the rate of interest and other fees, to the benchmark rate plus 450 basis points spread. The” all-in-cost” is intended to prevent corporates with high credit risk, and likely to default, from availing ECB.
(d) and (e): There is no such proposal at present.
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