The government has borrowed about $5.6 billion (Rs 41,746 crore) from international financial institutions and other countries during the current fiscal to battle the Covid-19 pandemic, RTI documents, in possession of DH show.
The government of India has got sanctions worth Rs 52,246.32 crore loans from five foreign institutions, along with France and Japan to battle the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, a set of documents sourced from RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak show.
The loans approved include credit facilities from the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, International Bank For Reconstruction and Development, International Development Association, New Development Bank, along with bilateral loans from France and Japan.
Of this, 80% (Rs 41,746 crore) of the sanctioned amount has already been disbursed to India. The loans from Asian Development Bank, International Development Association, New Development Bank, and France have been fully disbursed. The loans from International Bank For Reconstruction and Development and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have been partially disbursed, while the loan from Japan hasn't been disbursed at all till now.
But surprisingly, the government has spent 4% more on utilisation from these loans than actually sanctioned to them. The government, till now has utilised Rs 43,345.69 crore from their international loan kitty.
The disbursed loans also include a credit line of Rs 5,620 crore for support of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises -- a sector which has seen a lot of stress since the ill-thought-out currency ban by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 -- from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
These loans are over and above the collection from the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) created in March 2020, following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in India. The fund will be used for combating, containment, and relief efforts against the coronavirus outbreak and similar pandemic like situations in the future.
There have been concerns of accountability associated with the PM CARES Fund, as it is still to come under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The reports suggest that the collection under PM CARES Fund has been over Rs 10,000 crore.