Too little, too late ; Keeping in mind the cash crunch faced by infrastructure companies, the government has doubled the ECB limit to $100 million. For all other companies, the limit has been hiked from $20 million to $50 million. Higher ECB limits and relaxed FII caps in debt may not help.

Nine months after the government put curbs on use of externalcommercial borrowings (ECBs), it wants to go easy. Keeping in mindthe cash crunch faced by infrastructure companies, it has doubledthe ECB limit to $100 million. For all other companies, the limithas been hiked from $20 million to $50 million.

Apart from allowing companies to raise more capital, thegovernment also wants foreign institutional investors (FIIs) toinvest more in the local debt markets. So, the FII investment cap ingovernment securities has been raised from $3.2 billion to $5billion and from $1.5 billion to $3 billion in corporate bonds.

The government wants to ensure that corporates do not face …