New
Delhi: State-owned FCI, the nodal agency for procurement and distribution of
food grains, plans to raise Rs 20,000 crore short-term loans for working
capital and has invited bids from scheduled banks. In the tender, which was
floated on December 3 and closes on December 22, the Food Corporation of India
has said it is "considering raising short-term loans from the scheduled
banks only for 120 days tenure". The fund would be utilized to meet its
short term fund requirement for procurement and distribution of food grains,
the tender document said. This is the third time in this fiscal that FCI is
floating a tender to raise short-term loans.
It
had raised Rs 20,000 crore each in two tranches and the amount was repaid after
receiving food subsidy payment from the government.FCI regularly raises bank
loans to fund procurement and distribution operations, because of delay in
payment of subsidy as well as huge food subsidy arrears. FCI currently has food
subsidy arrears of around Rs 56,000 crore, of which about Rs 50,000 crore is
carry-forward from last fiscal, sources said, adding that the corporation is
left with no other option but to raise funds.
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