Ajay Piramal, chairman of Piramal Enterprises, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the ongoing crisis in the NBFC space and liquidity situation in the banking sector.

"As far as the loan book is concerned, there is enough demand in the economy since some of the NBFCs have reduced their lending considerably. So as a company their focus would be to have more than enough liquidity," Piramal said on Friday.

Talking about the liquidity situation, Piramal said, "Today though there is liquidity in the system, it is more a matter of confidence. I find banks and mutual funds are not lending as much as they would have to most NBFCs,” he said, adding that Piramal Enterprises has not faced this problems because banks have rolled over more than 70 percent of their commercial paper that was due.

"The company has also got additional banking lines even from banks with whom they were not dealing. So it looks like it is flight for quality," said Piramal.

With regards to their loan exposure to the real estate space, he said, "Most of them are in construction finance, some in lease rental discounting (LRDs) and some in acquisition of land."

“All the loans that we give are cross collateralized. We do not give loan to somebody who has just one project,” he said.

On the RBI's prompt correction action (PCA) norms, Piramal said, "They are not directed towards NBFCs but towards banks. So if PCA norms were relaxed, maybe more confidence would come in terms of lending. So under the circumstances, the RBI needs to take special measures because one does not want the whole economy to come to a halt just because of lack of confidence," he said.

He also said that the current liquidity condition was not akin to 2008 or 2013. "There is enough liquidity in the system but it is not being lent," Piramal added.

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First Published:Oct 26, 2018 10:07 AM IST