Tightening screws on foreign fund raising, the Reserve Bank has banned domestic firms from raising such funds above the permitted levels and from extending guarantees for them to meet domestic funding needs. The RBI in a notification yesterday also made it clear that those not following the norms will face penal action under the Foreign Exchange Management Act -FEMA.Forex funds are cheaper than the rupee funds and it was noticed by the apex bank that in recent years, some Indian companies have been tapping up forex debt market to repay rupee loans or to meet other capex needs. As per official data, India Inc's foreign borrowing soared 44 per cent to 2.78 billion US Dollar in October. Of this only 69.43 million US dollar came through approval route and the rest 2.71 billion US dollar through automatic route.