Prepared to handle any responsibility given by govt: IIFCL MD

New Delhi: Amid the proposed formation of DFI, India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited managing director PR Jaishankar has said the company is prepared to handle any responsibility given by the government.

The Union Budget 2021-22 presented in Parliament earlier this month proposed to set up a Development Finance Institution (DFI) with an initial capital of Rs 20,000 crore to fund the Rs 111 lakh crore ambitious National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).

National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID), the proposed DFI, expected to anchor the very ambitious NIP.

“IIFCL has been playing its role as a policy institution and financial institution of the Government of India for financing infrastructure development. The Budget has laid down a solid foundation for taking the infrastructure to the next scale,” Jaishankar told PTI.

As far as infrastructure financing is concerned, he said, “IIFCL has been working in a manner that development finance requirements were met in a more focussed manner. So, that has been already there”.

India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL), with a paid-up capital of Rs 10,000 crore, has sanctioned the loan of around Rs 1.5 lakh crore as of January 2021 to more than 620 projects with a total outlay of Rs 10.8 lakh crore.

When asked about its role as part of a new organisation, he said, “It matters how the government looks at it. We are geared up and prepared to handle any such responsibility that the government would give to IIFCL”.

The government is considering a proposal to subsume IIFCL into the proposed DFI.

“IIFCL may be considered for a quick start if it could be subsumed in this new financial institution because they already have some domain expertise and they have some manpower who are already trained and experienced in this field,” Financial Services Secretary Debasish Panda had said.

Set up in 2006, IIFCL is a leading financial institution in the infrastructure sector and developed several innovative financial solutions, including takeout finance, subordinated debt and credit enhancement.

The company has channelised USD 2.8 billion from multilateral financial institutions like the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

It has developed 28,000 Km of road and financed 490 public-private partnership (PPP) projects, 27 per cent of India’s PPP project. Besides, it has financed airports, ports and renewal energy projects.

Talking about the financial performance, Jaishankar said the profit before tax doubled to Rs 404 crore in the nine months of FY21 as against Rs 201 crore in the April-December period of the previous fiscal.

The net profit of the company, wholly-owned by the government, rose by 19 per cent to Rs 212 crore in the first nine-month period of the current fiscal compared to Rs 178 crore in the same period a year ago.

At the same time, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the company improved to 18.72 per cent as compared to 22.27 per cent at the end of December 2019.