‘Indian $1 bn credit costly’

‘Indian $1 bn credit costly’

Dhaka, Feb 14: The one billion-dollar credit line India pledged to Bangladesh last month will be ‘costlier’ than what Bangladesh gets from elsewhere, a newspaper on Sunday claimed. It also said the ‘supplier’s credit’ will ‘force’ Dhaka to purchase Indian goods. The newspaper quoted unnamed officials, experts and past advice from multilateral donors like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund against a supplier’s credit. Available public data showed Bangladesh had been receiving loans from many bilateral countries and multilateral lenders at a lower than 1.75 per cent interest rate.

A meeting between Bangladesh Finance Minister A M A Muhith and Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh, Rajeet Mitter Saturday on the implementation aspects of the proposed billion-dollar credit indicated that the bulk of the amount would be in the form of suppliers’ credit, the New Age said. Mitter told reporters after the meeting that technical works had already begun under the joint communique. “Three components - supply of locomotives and passenger coaches, buses, and dredgers - were included in the joint communique, the technical works of which have already begun,” he said.