REC may borrow up to Rs 13,000 cr this fiscal

Chennai: The Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), which has commitments to lend Rs 1.10 lakh crore to the power sector over the next decade-and-half, expects to borrow between Rs 12,000 crore and Rs 13,000 crore in 2007-08.

Stating this REC's Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Anil Kumar Lakhina, said the Corporation expects to have earned a net profit between Rs 900 crore and Rs 1,000 crore in 2006-07. Mr Lakhina was here to sign a MoU with the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board for providing Rs 16,000 crore of loans to the Board over the next five years. REC has a loan book of about Rs 28,000 crore. Of this, about Rs 4,000 crore would be loans given to generation projects, and the rest to transmission and distribution projects, Mr Lakhina said.