"I will also meet finance minister Yashwant Sinha on Monday to pursue this," Kumaramangalam told PTI in an interview.

SBI chairman MS Verma recently held discussions with the power minister when the later visited Mumbai.

The minister said he told SBI chief that he should contribute at least $300 million for the sector, where annual investment was to the extent of Rs 20,000 crore.

Replying to a question Kumaramangalam said he had also asked the SBI to give Rs 1,000 crore credit from RIB proceeds to state-owned Power Finance Corporation (PFC).

SBI chief had agreed to a meeting with Power Finance Corporation chairman Uddesh Kohlion this issue, he added.

"This is not a major amount and I am confident that SBI and the finance ministry will agree to this," the ministersaid.

Power minister said he would also hold a meeting with the chief executives of the financial institutions later this month to review credit arrangements for the power sector.

Meanwhile, PFC sources said the corporation had written to SBI last month seeking credit from RIB proceeds.

SBI has already provided about Rs 100 crore to the corporation from the RIB proceeds, the sources said adding PFC had requested the bank to provide the loan at about 12.75 per cent interest.

Power Finance Corporation, which exclusively caters for the funding requirements of the power sector, had deferred its Rs 600 crore maiden public bond issue in view of the adverse market conditions and had sought power ministry's help to secure additional Rs 1,000 crore from the RIB proceeds.

The corporation, which intends to mobilise Rs 2,000 crore both from the domestic and the external markets in the current fiscal had requested SBI for the loan keeping in view the funds provided to the Industrial Development and FinanceCorporation (IDFC) and the Housing Development and Finance Corporation (HDFC).

Government had announced that the amount mopped up through the RIB proceeds would be exclusively used to develop infrastructure in the country.

PFC had already mobilised Rs 785 crore in the first-half of the current fiscal, out of which SBI had provided Rs 260 crore while Rs 186 crore was mopped up through bonds.