Government units safest among Indian borrowers: Survey

23 Jun 2010

The risk of payment defaults in India is the highest amongst proprietary firms, with a 37-per cent share, followed by private limited companies with 26 per cent and partnership firms with a 21 per cent share respectively, says a new survey by French risk analysis firm Colface.

Colface finds indian government departments the safest borrowers.

The survey, conducted for the second time in India also states that the standard payment terms for most companies are around 30 days and most industries offer a maximum of 60 days credit terms to their clients.

Long term overdues (above 1 year) are frequent in sectors like computer and peripherals, food and beverage, services, textile and clothing. Short-term overdues (between 6-12 months) are frequent in sectors like agriculture, consumer/industrial electronics, telecom, IT, paper and packaging and shipping.

The survey found that 53 per cenet of the companies covered expect the impact of the global financial crisis on payments to start easing by the middle of 2010 in India.

Another 28 per cent expect it to happen by end of 2010 and 19 per cent felt that it had started easing by end of 2009 itself.