Date:03/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/03/stories/2007100354221300.htm

National

No move to have Sovereign Wealth Fund, says Chidambaram

P. Chidambaram

SIMLA: The Centre does not have any proposal to set up a Sovereign Wealth Fund, which is a corpus set apart from forex reserves and other resources for investment.

“No, there is no such proposal,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said in reply to a query by reporters on the sidelines of the launch of an insurance scheme for the rural landless here on Tuesday.

In many parts of the world, the Fund is created with central bank reserves accumulated from budget, trade surpluses, forex as well as revenue generated from exports of natural resources. The country’s forex reserves rose to all-time high of $235.89 billion last week.

The Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India are finalising norms for using forex reserves for financing infrastructure through an overseas subsidiary of the India Infrastructure Finance Corporation Ltd. Companies will be able to borrow from this subsidiary for capital expenditure. — PTI