No Data to Back Claim That India Owes $1,31,100 Mn to World Bank

As per government data, India’s outstanding amount with the World Bank stood at USD 34,285 million till March 2018.

A viral post on Facebook falsely claimed that India owes an amount of over $1 lakh million to the World Bank.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

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CLAIM

An image on social media claims that India owes an amount of USD 1,31,100 million to the World Bank. The claim mentioned in the image further holds Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government responsible for the alleged due amount.

The Facebook post had received an engagement of 7,700 shares at the the time of publishing this article.

Screenshot of the Facebook post. (Photo Courtesy: Facebook)

WHAT DOES GOVERNMENT DATA SAY?

An answer, dated 20 July 2018 to a question raised in the 16th Lok Sabha session on the loans repaid by the government from 2004 to 2018, mentions that as of March 2018, India’s outstanding amount with the World Bank stood at $34,285.16 million.

While the government data has does not have a breakup of the due amount to be paid as of March 2018, it is not even remotely close to $1,31,100 million, as claimed in the viral post.

Also, looking at the logical progression of the due amount over the years, it is hard to believe that $34,285.16 million in 2018 can rise up to $1,31,100 million in 2019.

WHAT DO WORLD BANK RECORDS SAY?

The World Bank comprises of two major institutions, which are International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA).

The IBRD is a global development cooperative owned by 189 member countries, which provides loans, guarantees, risk management products, among others to middle-income and low-income nations.

The financial institution of IDA makes developmental loans to the world’s poorest nations. It is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 76 poorest countries.

Let’s first look at IBRD records:

The below table lists loans that the World Bank sanctioned to India for different projects, the amount disbursed by the bank, and the amount that has been repaid by India.

As per the data, India has dues amounting to $14.45 billion to be paid to the World Bank for loans sanctioned to 126 projects.

Now, let’s look at IDA records:

In the table given below, the loans sanctioned by IDA for different projects have not been fully repaid.

The column ‘Due to IDA’ mentions the amount that India is yet to pay to the World Bank for different projects, which is over $1.1 billion for 21 projects.

On adding up the IBRD and IDA data, the amount comes out to be over $15,560 million which is nowhere close to $1,31,100 million as claimed in the viral post.

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