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New Delhi, June 24 (PTI): India is set to become the eighth-largest shareholder in the IMF after quota reforms, which are likely to be finalised at the multilateral agency’s annual meeting in Tokyo in October, a finance ministry official said.
Once the quota reforms are carried out, India’s share at the IMF is set to rise to 2.75 per cent from 2.44 per cent. At present, India is the eleventh-largest shareholder.
Last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced that India would contribute $10 billion to the IMF’s $430-billion bailout fund for the Eurozone. India’s contribution was part of a pledge by the G20 nations made in April to supply the IMF with extra firepower to fight the crisis in the Eurozone.
The Prime Minister today said he did not see anything wrong in the $10-billion (Rs 56,000 crore) contribution to the IMF.
Defending the government’s decision, he said the contribution would be used up only if the need arose and asserted it would continue to be part of the country’s reserves.
Singh came under attack from critics who maintained that India could ill afford to pledge such a huge amount when the country itself was facing an economic slowdown. Singh said he had a discussion with the Brics leaders before making the announcement and all of them announced similar contributions.
The implementation of the quota reforms has been delayed as countries such as the US have not yet ratified the proposal. The issue came up for discussion at the recent G20 summit at Los Cabos and the world leaders had underlined the need for the expeditious completion of the reforms to give more say to the emerging economies.
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