The Minimum Average Maturity of the borrowing will have to confirm to the following specifications :

Type of Borrower	Amount	Minimum Average Maturity
General (All companies, except 100% EOUs)	<= $ 20 million equivalent	3 years
General	> $ 20 million equivalent	5 years (reduced from 7 years earlier)
100% EOU	$ 20 million equivalent or 60% of Project Cost	3 years
DFIs, Infrastructure/ Oil Exploration and Development (not refining) organisation	<= $ 20 million equivalent > $ 20 million equivalent or 50% of Project Cost	3 years 5 years
Exporters/ Foreign Exchange Earner's scheme	Lower of $ 200 million equivalent or Twice the average amount of annual exports during the previous three years	5 years (reduced from 7 years earlier)
Long Term ECB Scheme - Slab A	upto $ 200 million equivalent	8 to 16 years (reduced from 10 earlier)
Long Term ECB Scheme - Slab B	upto $ 400 million equivalent	16 years and more (reduced from 20 earlier)
Infrastructure Projects (Holding Co.'s/Promoters' contribution/ SPVs)	<= $ 200 Million equivalent to finance equity investment in a subsidiary implementing infrastructure projects.	unspecified

EOU - Export Oriented Unit
DFI - Development Financial Institution e.g. IDBI, ICICI, IFCI etc.

The $ 5 million scheme
All corporates and institutions are permitted to raise ECB upto $ 5 million equivalent at a simple maturity of three years. Borrowers may utilise the proceeds of this window for rupee expenditure, subject to the caveat that only one such loan is outstanding at any point of time. The loan amount may be raised in one or more tranches subject to the caveat that the total outstanding loan under this scheme at any point of time should not exceed USD 5 million. Each tranche should have a minimum simple maturity of 3 years.

When these loans are provided by NRIs, joint venture partners etc., these have to be routed through an internationally recognised bank.

Interest Rate

ECBs for project financing may pay Interest Spreads upto 350 basis points above LIBOR/ US Treasury, with the flexibility that upto 50% of the permissible debt may be in the form of subordinated debt at a higher interest rate, provided the composite spread for senior and subordinated debt taken together comes within the project financing limit.