The Reserve Bank of India rationalised investment limits in government securities for all categories of foreign investors by merging the sub-limits within the overall $30-billion cap.
Accordingly, all investors, including foreign institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, multilateral agencies, pension funds, insurance companies and foreign central banks will now have access to $30 billion worth of investment in government bonds.
Earlier, within the $30 billion, $10 billion limit was earmarked for only long-term investors such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and insurance companies and the rest $20 billion was available for FIIs.
All foreign investors have been barred from buying short-term papers such as Treasury bills, the RBI reiterated.
As on Monday, FIIs had exhausted 76% of the $20 billion investment limit in government bonds while long-term investors had utilised only 18% of $10 billion sub-limit.
In its first bi-monthly monetary policy statement, the RBI had said that henceforth any foreign investment in treasury bills will not be permitted.
