The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted state governments and union territories (UTs) greater flexibility for availing overdraft facilities with immediate effect till September 30.
In a statement issued on April 7, the central bank said it had decided after a review to increase it to 21 working days, the period for which a state or UT could be in overdraft continuously. The previous stipulation was of 14 working days.
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The number of days a state or UT can be in overdraft in a quarter has also been increased to 50 working days from the current stipulation of 36 working days.
All other stipulations remain the same. The RBI said this would “provide greater flexibility to the state governments to tide over their cash flow mismatches”.
This comes after the RBI, on April 1, announced a series or additional measures for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement on the RBI website, the central bank said it had extended the realisation period of export proceeds, reviewed limits of ways and means advances (WMA) to states and union territories (UTs), and put in place a framework for implementation of countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB).
Earlier on March 27, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced a massive 75-basis-point cut in repo rates as a measure to counter the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The reverse repo rate was cut by 90 basis points to 4 percent. Das said this as well as a host of other measures injecting Rs 3 lakh crore into the economy, had been done to make it unattractive for banks to passively deposit funds with the RBI and instead lend it to the productive sectors.
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