Finance
Indian LOC Projects Pace of disbursement of Indian LOC projects in Bangladesh increases
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, March 28: The total loan waiver for the Indian LOC (Line of Credit) projects is 96 crore USD, which is about 8,307 crore rupees in Bangladeshi currency (calculating 1 USD = Rs 86).
India, one of the development partners of Bangladesh, has released this loan with the help of three LOCs.
The Department of Economic Relations (ERD) has said that the amount of debt relief in India was initially disappointing but has now increased. In the first phase, the amount of LOC loan given in 2010 was 80 crore USD. In the meantime, India has disbursed 68.6 crore USD or 73.65 percent of the funds under the project. There is only 12 crore USD left in the first LOC. Fifteen projects were taken up under the first LOC. Twelve of those projects have already been completed. The remaining three projects are ongoing. All the projects except one project will be implemented in FY 2021-22.
Meanwhile, India has signed a second LOC of 200 crore USD loan agreement. Of this, 17.26 crore dollars has been released. A further 450 crore USD loan agreement was signed under the third phase of the Line of Credit during the visit of the late Arun Jaitley, former Finance and Defence Minister of India. Of this, 10.13 crore dollars has been released. In three stages, the amount of Indian debt stands at seven and a half billion dollars or about 60 thousand crore rupees (1 USD= Rs 80). Of this, 96 crore USD has been disbursed.
A meeting chaired by ERD Secretary Fatima Yasmin was held at the NEC conference room in the city on Sunday (March 27) to discuss the implementation of the project including disbursement of LOC loans. The meeting was attended by senior officials of ERD including ministries, departments, agencies, Indian High Commission concerned with the project.
Regarding the meeting, ERD Deputy Secretary Muhammad Rezaul Karim said that the LOC loan waiver was delayed due to various reasons including Corona pandemic. But now everything is getting normal. The pace of debt relief will increase further in the future.
According to ERD sources, a total of 15 projects have been taken up in the second loan. Two projects have already been completed. There are 13 ongoing projects. The rebate on the second loan is increasing from the current time. Besides, a total of 16 projects have been taken up under the third loan. Five of these projects have been approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC). There will be tenders for some projects ahead.
