India to facilitate state-owned banks with $3 billion this fiscal

State-owned banks in India might receive an investment of $3 billion this fiscal as the government plans to help re-capitalise the sector and allow it to meet Basel III rules.

Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, who is accompanying Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on a US visit seeking more investments informed about the developement. Mehrishi also said that India might potentially inject an amount of $6 billion next year.

"What we are aiming at is an infusion of about $3 billion in the current year and perhaps twice as much in the next year,” said the Finance secretary.

A report published in Economic Times says that the intended injection into state banks is significantly higher than the estimate of 79.4 billion rupees ($1.25 billion) given in the government's budget for this fiscal year.

The Finance secretary also informed that India could also finance the increased injection amount through supplemental funding that is available to the government outside the budget.