Mumbai, Apr 7 (IANS): To ease the cashflow mismatches which might occur due to Covid-19 lockdown, the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday extended the time period for States and Union Territories to avail overdraft facilities.

Accordingly, the RBI has decided to increase the number of days for which a State or UT can be in "overdraft" continuously to 21 working days from the current stipulation of 14 working days. "The number of days for which a State or UT can be in overdraft in a quarter has been increased to 50 working days from the current stipulation of 36 working days,"

"All other stipulations remain unchanged. This arrangement will come into force with immediate effect and will remain valid till September 30, 2020."

At present, the lockdown has impacted the government's revenue collections which are expected to remain far lower than the budgeted targets for few months.

The lockdown has halted economic activities with closure of dine-in restaurants, grounding of aircraft, shutting down of factories and deserted market places.