India Said to Plan Debt Relief for Ailing Power Retailers
- India to get states to take over debt of power distributors
- Plan needs to be approved by the country's finance ministry
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India is planning to restructure loans of some unprofitable regional electricity retailers by getting provincial governments to take over their liabilities, according to people familiar with the matter.
State governments, which usually have higher credit ratings than the cash-strapped power distributors, will sell bonds at lower interest rates to pay lenders, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions aren’t public. The federal government will raise the borrowing limit of the states and allow them a wider fiscal deficit to give them room to borrow more, the people said, citing the proposal.