The policy seeks to keep an annual cap or ceiling on access to ECB (presently this cap is $ 8.5 billion p.a.).

This means that total sanctioned amount for all applicants within a year cannot exceed $ 8.5 billion. In the financial year 1999-2000, even this cieling was underutilised. ECBs larger than USD 100 million (no end-use restrictions) are outside purview of annual ECB Cap.

Corporate borrowers able to raise long-term resources with an average maturity of 8 years (reduced from 10 earlier) and 16 years (reduced from 20 earlier) will be allowed to use the ECB proceeds upto USD 200 million and USD 400 million respectively without any end-use restrictions i.e. for general corporate objectives (excluding investments in stock markets or in real estate). The instrument should not include any "Put" or "Call" options potentially reducing the stated maturities. The total debt allowed through this window will be within the overall limit of the borrower's ECB entitlement.

Priority and Allocation

The policy aims to give priority to projects in infrastructure and core sectors (such as power, telecommunication, railways etc.), the export sector, Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) and to the needs of medium and small - scale units.

Out of the $ 8.5 billion cap, the following amounts have been earmarked for various categories: