Within six months of a Rs 1,000 crore assistance from the government and stakeholders, IFCI Ltd is seeking an additional Rs 2,500 crore long-term loan from Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).
IFCI wants the loan to be on the lines of the package cleared by the insurer for the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) recently, which has a 20-year tenure.
The proposal is being discussed with the finance ministry and is expected to be taken up with the life insurer. Earlier, IFCI had informally conveyed a fresh request for assistance from the government, which was turned down by finance ministry officials.
Sources told Business Standard that despite the Rs 1,000 crore package cleared for IFCI in August 2001, the institution's credit rating remains poor and it has been unable to raise substantial funds from other institutions and banks. IFCI has repayment obligations due in April and September.
Meanwhile, the finance ministry has summoned Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) chairman P P Vora to Delhi to ask him to disburse the remaining Rs 150 crore of the Rs 200 crore assistance, committed by it in August 2001, at the earliest. IDBI has been insisting that the assistance sanctioned by it to IFCI will be a cash neutral transaction on the lines of the Rs 400 crore sanctioned by the government, which was reinvested in government securities.
Sources said IFCI had approached the government to speed up the sanction of the Rs 150 crore following the repayment of a Rs 240 crore foreign currency loan in January.
LIC, the State Bank of India and IDBI had in August 2001 agreed to provide an assistance of Rs 200 crore each to the Delhi-headquartered financial institution. IDBI has only sanctioned Rs 50 crore of the committed amount.
IFCI has also sought that state governments and the Centre meet their guarantee commitments worth around Rs 700 crore. These guarantees had been provided by the state governments and the Centre to loans extended by the institution, which have since become non-performing.
The package cleared by LIC for NHAI involves loans to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore over the next three years. The loan carries an interest rate of around 9 per cent.
IFCI intends to raise money to retire high-cost debt bearing interest rates of over 16 per cent. The institution had last year retired high-cost debt of around Rs 3,000 crore.
In addition to the long-term debt from LIC, IFCI is also seeking short-term credit from various banks and institutions and had recently hiked the deposit rates on its fixed deposit scheme.
