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Great response to RIBs, say officials

State Bank of India sources said there has been tremendous response to the Resurgent India Bond in the two days it has been around.

Though the officials would not reveal the exact figure the bank collected from non-resident Indians, sources indicated today that nearly 100 million US dollars have already been collected.

The money came mainly from Europe and the Gulf countries. In the US, from where the government expects a lot of funds to arrive in the country because of a strong NRI community, the process of collecting the money has not begun so far, since the RIB forms reached US only yesterday.

SBI Chairman Maya Shanker Verma mentioned in his roadshow in the Gulf that he expected to collect between $ 600 million to $ 1 billion from that area alone because of the large number of Indians working there.

Speaking to Rediff On The NeT, a top SBI official said, "The clearance from the US Securities and Exchange Commission came at the last moment, so the process did not begin on August 5 as it did in other countries."

It may be recalled that there was speculation that the US government would not clear the RIB issue in their country after the US government announced sanctions against India following the nuclear tests it conducted.

In fact, the officials confirmed that some banks in the US acting as mediators had received only a handful of applications, all downloaded from the Internet. The printed application forms from the SBI had not reached the US at the time.

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha announced the RIB issue in his Budget speech, soon after the US slapped sanctions on India.

The RIBs are expected to collect $ 2 billion for investment in the infrastructure sector to boost the economy.

The RIBs earliest closing offer is August 17 and the last closing date is September 4.

Asked whether the SBI expects to garner the $ 2 billion by August 17, the SBI official replied in the affirmative.

"The RIBs have got a response three times better than the India Development Bonds have," he said. The India Development Bond, announced by former finance minister Manmohan Singh, was expected to gather $ 1.8 billion in three months.

"If the response is good in US, I am sure we will close the issue before August 17, the earliest closing," the official said.