The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday announced the Monetary and Credit Policy for October 2004-March 2005.
Following are the highlights of Rbi's busy season Credit Policy:
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GDP growth pegged down to 6-6.5 per cent for 2004-05
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Inflation pegged upwards at around 6.5 per cent
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Money Supply (M3) growth to be 14 per cent in 2004-05
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Bank Rate unchanged at 6 per cent
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Repo Rate hiked by 0.25 per cent to 4.75 per cent
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Housing finance upto Rs 15 lakh (Rs 1.5 million) under priority sector
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Ceiling on NRE deposit rates hiked by 0.5 pc over Libor
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FCNR(B) deposit rates can be fixed monthly
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Minimum tenor of term deposits lowered to 7 days
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PSU banks asked to step up loans to small farmers
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Private banks asked to attain 20-25 pc growth in farm loans
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Loan limit for SSIs doubled to Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million)
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RIDF fund of Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion) set up
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]Minimum maturity of Commercial Papers lowered to 7 days
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Capital Indexed Bonds from next fiscal
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Market Stabilisation scheme ceiling at Rs 80,000 crore (Rs 800 billion)
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Time limit for export realisation for EOUs (Export Oriented Units) eased
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Forward contracts booking by exporters/importers eased
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New non-performing assets norms for financial institutions
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Asset reconstruction company's minimum capital up at 15 per cent of assets or Rs 100 cr (Rs 1 billion)
- Central Board of Direct Taxes allowed to refund upto Rs 25,000 through electronic claearing.