New Delhi (NVI): Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das today said the central bank will provide additional special liquidity facility of Rs 10,000 crore to National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) and National Housing Bank (NHB).
The facility will be for a period of one year and will be charged at the RBI’s repo rate.
Announcing monetary policy decisions, Das said Rs 5,000 crore will be provided to NHB to support liquidity starved housing finance companies.
“In order to shield the housing sector from liquidity disruptions under the prevailing conditions and augment the flow of finance to the sector, it has been decided to provide an additional standing liquidity facility (ASLF) of ₹5,000 crore to NHB – over and above ₹10,000 crore already provided – for supporting housing finance companies (HFCs),” the RBI said in a statement.
RBI also announced a separate liquidity line of Rs 5,000 crore for Nabard for refinancing NBFC-MFIs and other smaller NBFCs.
In addition to this, RBI kept the repo rate, the key interest rate at which it lends to commercial banks, unchanged at 4 percent.
Furthermore, among the key announcements made, RBI has also decided to allow loans for non-agricultural purposes, against gold and jewellery, to be granted up to 90 percent of the pledged value of gold ornaments and jewellery. This relaxation of the limit, up from current limit of 75 percent, shall be available till March 31, 2021.
-CHK
