NEW Delhi, July 5: State-owned funding agency Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has sought a Rs 250 crore loan from public sector State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank and Oriental Bank.PFC director, finance, Tantra Narayan Thakur said that the corporation had sought Rs 100 crore as a fresh line of credit from SBI.
The amount, which forms part of the Rs 700 crore domestic fund raising exercise of PFC in 1998-99 would be disbursed to state electricity boards (SEBs) and power utilities during the current fiscal, Thakur said.
Corporation sources said that PFC had also sought a total Rs 150 crore loan from the Punjab National Bank and the Oriental Bank and the interest rates would depend on the prime lending rates.
PFC has already used up the Rs 200 crore loan it had got from SBI at 12.75 per cent interest, the sources said. The letter seeking the fresh credit from SBI was sent last month.
The corporation intends to mobilise about Rs 1,950 crore for the current fiscal year and its disbursaltarget has been set at Rs 2,500 crore, they said.
PFC proposes to raise a major portion of its Rs 1,950 crore through external commercial borrowings (ECBs), they said adding about Rs 1,250 crore could be raised through ECBs and Rs 700 crore through domestic borrowings.
The sources also indicated that PFC might raise Rs 970 crore from financial institutions by selling government stake up to 49 per cent in the corporation.
A recommendation to this effect was made in the report of the Narasimhan committee which had gone into various aspects of PFC's financial operations.The government's contribution in PFC's paid up capital stands at Rs 1,030 crore out of Rs 2,000 crore authorised capital. Equity could be raised to Rs 2,000 crore from financial institutions after PFC reaches saturation in its debt mobilisation capacity, the sources said.
PFC had disbursed Rs 2,025 crore in 1997-98 as against the target of Rs 1,500 crore and had sanctions to the tune of Rs 2,932 crore during the same year which was morethan Rs 818 crore compared to the previous year.
The corporation's funding to the private sector power projects had not picked up momentum due to the problems faced by the independent power producers (IPPs) in getting various government clearances like the power purchase agreement (PPA) and the fuel supply agreement (FSA).
PFC had so far sanctioned loans for five private power projects totalling to about Rs 480 crore.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
