Cabinet okays listing of ECGC, to infuse Rs 4,400 cr

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 29

The government today approved twin proposal of capital infusion of Rs 4,400 crore in the state-owned export credit insurance company ECGC in next five years and its listing on the stock market through multiple public offerings.

Briefing media about the decisions, which were taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by PM Narendra Modi, Minister for Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal said, “Approval has been granted to provide a boost to the export sector.”

Approval has also been given for the continuation of the National Export Insurance Account (NEIA) scheme and infusion of Rs 1,650 crore as grant-in-aid for over five years.

In line with this, the minister said it had been decided to infuse capital worth of Rs 4,400 crore to Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) over a period of five years, which is between financial year 2021-2022 to financial year 2025- 2026.

Claiming that the country’s exports were at US$ 185 billion till September 21 and they may go up to US$ 190 billion by the end of the first half of the financial year, Goyal said the decision to infuse fresh capital had been taken with a view to make efforts to suitably synchronise it with the listing process of ECGC through the Initial Public Offering (IPO). “This will increase the solvency and underwriting capacity of ECGC to support more exports,” he added.

Of the total Rs 4,400 core, the minister said Rs 500 crore would be infused in the ECGC immediately and another Rs 500 crore in the next financial year. The rest would be need based, he added.

When asked about the timeline for issuing IPO, Goyal said, the government would start the process to list the state-owned entity soon and hopefully the company would hit the market during the next financial year.