The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Ltd (ICICI) plans to disburse over Rs 5,000 crore to the infrastructure sector in the next financial year in order to boost the economy.
Looking at the current economic situation in the country, ICICI has decided to put emphasis on infrastructure funding to revive the economy, Kalpana Morparia, general manager, ICICI, said.
However, she did not specify the various sectors within infrastructure to which ICICI will give priority.
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It is difficult at this moment to identify the key sectors, she said adding that a lot will depend on the situation at the time of disbursement.
Looking at the current disbursement rate, ICICI has fixed a target of around Rs 5,000 crore for infrastructure during 1998-99, she said.
ICICI has already disbursed around Rs 3,000 crore to the infrastructure sector in the first 10 months of the current financial year and by the end of 1997-98 it would have disbursed about Rs 4,000 crore, Morparia said.
The overall disbursement in the current year at Rs 11,000 crore by the development bank have also been good with growth of 25 per cent over the previous year, she said.
Morparia said the total disbursement by the end of current fiscal will be around Rs 13,500 crore.
Commenting on the means of financing for the next fiscal she said, ICICI has already got in-principle approval for its Rs 3,000 crore bonds issue through umbrella prospectus, from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
She said through umbrella prospectus ICICI will not have to approach Sebi for their permission every time the institution wants to raise money from the market.
Through this prospectus, ICICI proposes to hit the market every alternate month, she said.
The Japanese Export Import Bank has also sanctioned a loan of $50 million to ICICI for Indo-Japanese ventures and the loan is likely to be disbursed by April 1998, she said.
Apart from these loans, ICICI will rely on market borrowings both in the domestic as well as international markets, she said.
Regarding financial performance of ICICI, she said the year is expected to end on good note with net profits in the range of Rs 1,000 crore, up from Rs 732 crore reported for the financial year ending 1996-97.