Shifting gear

Idle funds are bad for business, and worse still for the economy.

0Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has finally sorted out the issues to set aside a portion of the swelling foreign exchange reserves for developing the country’s weak infrastructure.

The money will go to a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) formed last year to enable long-gestation projects to raise funds cheaply.

According to the Finance Minister, the SPV will borrow forex reserves from the Reserve Bank of India and co-finance ECBs for import of machinery by Indian firms.

While here is a demand for better infrastructure, levying and collecting user charges remains an issue. Surely, without resolving it, projects will not find takers.