India's undrawn external loan amounts to Rs 95,487 cr: Pranab

NEW DELHI: India's undrawn external loan from multilateral agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank amounted to a huge Rs 95,487 crore by March this year.

The information was given by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha today.

The undrawn amount from the World Bank and ADB alone was Rs 57,202 crore against the sanctioned loan of Rs 1,19,783 crore.

The country had to pay the commitment charges of Rs 113.21 crore in 2008-09 and Rs 122.64 crore in 2007-08.

Mukherjee said while the government was trying to reduce these charges, they were inevitable and all the countries taking assistance from the multilateral agencies have to bear this.

"This money is kept in liquid," by these agencies and there is not much choice before the borrowers but to pay these charges, he said.