NEW DELHI: India is likely to more than triple its standby credit facility to Bhutan to Rs 1,000 crore, as it faces a severe shortage in Indian rupees — fuelled by galloping imports, presence of large number of workers from India, and construction of hydropower projects to sell power to India.
To tide over the crisis temporarily, Bhutan had requested India to increase the standby credit facility of Rs 300 crore to Rs 1,000 crore. “There has been some delay in processing the request as it is the end of the financial year and we have just finalised our Union budget. But, we should be able to process it by next month,” said diplomatic sources. The Bhutanese Ngultrum is pegged at par to the Indian rupee.
Indian officials point out that another reason for the delay was that Thimpu had first only asked for a doubling of earlier standby credit facility of Rs 300 crore to Rs 600 crore. “We had already processed the request, then Bhutan asked for the increase to Rs 1,000 crore, so we had to start all over again,” he said.
The proposal will have to be approved by the Cabinet and Parliament, which will reconvene from April 24.