The government will have to pump Rs 70,000-90,000 crore into state-run banks by the year of 2018 if it wants to maintain its shareholding in the banks at the current level, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has estimated.

Addressing the annual FICCI-IBA banking seminar in Mumbai on Tuesday, RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao said the infusion of the estimated amount of money by the government was necessary to meet the new global prudential capital requirements as set by Basel-III norms.

Speaking on the topic, Subbarao said, "If the government opts to maintain its shareholding at the current level, the burden of recapitalisation will be of the order of Rs 90,000 crore."

On the other hand, if the government decides to infuse 70,000 crore into the state-owned banks, then its shareholding in every bank will slip to a minimum of 51 per cent.

When asked to comment on the Rs 1.75 lakh crore Tier I capital to meet the upcoming Basel III norms, the governor of the central bank said the amount that market would be required to provide would be anywhere in the range of Rs 70,000 crore to Rs 100,000 crore depending on how much money would be provided by the government.

The so-called Basel-III norms will take effect from January 2018, and the central bank is of the view that the period of next five years is enough for banks to raise the required funds.

However, many critics are of the view that Basel III norms could hurt growth because the higher capital requirements under the new norms will kick in at a time when the economy will be seeing a continued increase in demand for credit.