A Reserve Bank of India panel has called for a steep 8 percentage points rise in the priority sector lending, PSL, target for foreign banks to 40 per cent to bring them at par with the domestic banks. The PSL re-examining committee also came up with a slew of other recommendations such as doing away with the distinction between direct and indirect lending to the farm sector, whose total target has been retained at 18 per cent for commercial banks. In its report submitted to the RBI, the panel said, the limit under priority sector for loans for studies in India may be increased to 15 lakh rupees and 25 lakh rupees in case of studies abroad, from existing limit of 10 lakh and 20 lakh respectively. The committee also called for creating special categories within the existing sectors like small and marginal farmers and micro-enterprises and asked for minimum levels to be achieved in every sub-category in a timely manner. Under the recommendations, which are open for public comments till March 31, foreign lenders will have to lend 15 per cent each to exporters and to Medium and Small Enterprises, with 7 per cent allocation to micro businesses.