New Delhi, Sept 23 (KNN) The Reserve Bank will soon come out with a draft paper on liberalising external commercial borrowings (ECB) norms, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said here today.

 “We are in close discussions with RBI. We have had a few discussions in the last few weeks and very shortly, based on mutual discussions between the Finance Ministry and RBI, the Reserve Bank will be putting out a draft paper for liberalisation of certain ECB norms,” Das said while addressing an Assocham conference.

He said the liberalised ECB norms would be finalised after inviting comments from stakeholders and the norms would be relaxed keeping in view the overall external position and monetary stability.

 “Very short time will be given for suggestions (by stakeholders). Just to ensure we have not lost out on any point, it will be our effort to liberalise ECB... without causing any harm to essential inherent financial and monetary stability of India. We will, to the extent possible, liberalise various norms so that funds are available to corporates and other investors in India,” he added.

Further, referring to the FDI policy, he said, “The next area we are looking at is with regard to FDI reforms... new sectors have been opened up and sectoral caps have been liberalised, but there is a lot more to do.”

The FDI policy has various conditionalities and restrictions, he said.

“The effort is to make FDI policy simple and progressive. I won’t be able to spell out details because it is work in progress,” he added. (KNN Bureau)