Indian Borrowing From adb Seen Rising
India, which received its first loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1986, expects to increase borrowing this year, an Indian official said.
The official, a member of the Indian delegation at the ADB’s annual meeting here, told Reuters the bank is likely to approve three loans totalling between 350 and 400 mln dlrs in 1987, up from the 250 mln in two loans in 1986.
The official said negotiations on a 100 mln dlr loan for the modernisation of the Haldia and Madras ports had been completed and only need approval by the bank’s board.
The official said an ADB team is now in India for a survey of the second project involving imports of railway locomotives. He said the bank was also likely to extend a credit line to the Industrial Development Bank of India.
The ADB in 1986 extended a 100 mln dlr line of credit to state-owned Industrial Finance Corp of India.
The official said the ADB wants to gradually expand lending to India. “They (the bank) do not want their traditional borrowers from smaller countries in the region to get overwhelmed by (India and China),” he said. China is expected to receive its first ADB loan this year.
“We are quite satisfied at having opened this new window in borrowing,” the official said. “Our projects are being vetted quickly. We have no complaints.”
He said the ADB in any case would not be able to match Indian borrowing needs.
“In fiscal 1986/87 ending June India will borrow two billion dlrs from the World Bank alone,” he said.
“That represents the total ADB lending to all its borrowers in 1986.”
The official said total Indian development assistance from multilateral and bilateral creditors is likely to total four billion dlrs in 1986/87.
Asked to comment on U.S. Criticism of the quality of ADB lending, the official said: “The ADB is a regional bank and ought to have a better understanding of realities in Asia.”
“You cannot apply World Bank conditionalities everywhere,” he said. “The U.S. Cannot impose one yardstick for every country.”