An extract from India’s 1991 Structural Adjustment Loan with the IBRD (major lending arm of the World Bank)
A condition of the loan: ‘That the Borrower has introduced in its Parliament a Bill to amend its Sick Industrial Companies Act of 1985 (SICA), satisfactory to the Bank…’ (schedule 4)
Under the agreement, the Bank is given the discretion to withdraw funds if it is not satisfied on evidence satisfactory to it that this has occurred (see schedule 1 para 4 (c))
The point is not the virtues or pitfalls of the Sick Industrial Companies Act of 1985. The incorporation of terms like this represent an explicit circumvention of democratic process and parliamentary accountability. This is just one example. The people India, not the Bank, should stimulate Indian political and policy change. This intrusion must stop!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment