BackNational Housing Board applies to RBI to postpone ECB raising
The firm has applied for an extension of deadline to raise $200 mn after failing to raise the money in the year ended 31 Mar
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Mumbai: National Housing Bank (NHB), which regulates housing finance companies, has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for an extension of the deadline to raise $200 million in external commercial borrowings (ECBs) after failing to raise the money in the year ended 31 March, chairman and managing director R.V. Verma said.
“Last fiscal we were not very tight in terms of liquidity, we had other sources of funds like tax-free bonds so we took it easy. We have now applied to RBI to allow us to raise the money this fiscal," Verma said.
The money raised through the ECBs is mandated for so-called priority sector loans, or for lending to people buying homes costing up to ₹ 25 lakh. NHB would have lent to housing finance companies financing buyers of such homes.
Housing finance companies were given an overall cap of $1 billion to raise money from ECBs in 2013-14, out of which $600 million has been raised.
“Total lending to buy homes in India through housing finance companies has increased by ₹ 1.6 trillion to ₹ 9.60 trillion at the end March 2014," Verma said.
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