RBI receives $10.1 billion under forex swap window

Reserve Bank on Wednesday said it has received $10.1 billion under two schemes which were announced last month to attract foreign funds.

“The Reserve Bank has received till date $10.1 billion under the special concessional window for swapping Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Banks) Deposits and Overseas Foreign Currency Borrowings,” the central bank said in a statement.

The schemes will remain valid till November 30.

RBI had come out with the special measures to arrest declining value of rupee, which was triggered by widening CAD, which touched a historic high of 4.8 per cent of GDP in 2012-13.

Soon after taking over as RBI Governor on September 4, Raghuram Rajan announced the opening of a swap window facility to encourage banks to lure NRI funds.

Under the facility, banks are permitted to swap fresh FCNR (B) dollar funds, mobilised for a minimum tenor of three years, at a fixed rate of 3.5 per cent per annum for the tenor of the deposit.

Also, RBI relaxed norms for banks and allowed them to raise capital abroad to the tune of 100 per cent of their Tier I (equity) capital.

The rupee had plunged to life-time low of 68.85 against the dollar on August 28 but has recovered substantially. It was trading around 61.58 to a dollar.

As regards the CAD, it is likely to be better than the initial estimate of 3.7 per cent of GDP or $70 billion in the current fiscal due to slump in gold imports and improvement in merchandise exports.