The RBI, in its policy liberalisation of September 25, 2011, raised the ECB limit. The limit was hiked by 50 per cent to $750 million for real estate, industrial and infrastructure firms, and by 100 per cent to $200 million for hotels, hospitals and IT firms by .
Since then, the RBI has tweaked the ECB policy a number of times with the objective of facilitating higher overseas borrowings.
The following are among the changes that have been made to the policy:
In the same month , infrastructure firms were permitted to avail themselves of ECBs in renminbi up to $1 billion.
Then, in November , the all-in-cost for ECBS over the six-month LIBOR was hiked by 50 basis points for loans with a tenor of three- to-five years.
Subsequently, in December, microfinance institutions were allowed to raise ECBs up to $10 million in a financial year under the automatic route and the limit for NGOs was doubled to $10 million as well.
In February 2012 , developers of National Manufacturing Investment Zones (NMIZs) were allowed to tap ECBs under the approval route for infrastructure facilities, a benefit already allowed to Special Economic Zone (SEZ) developers.
And, in March 2012 , the higher all-in-cost for ECBs was extended for a period of six months.