Aid-A Different Backdrop

WITH the Budget out of the way, Vitta Mantralay officials must be getting ready for the Aid Consortium meeting later this month. By now this exercise is as well-drilled as Budget- making, There will he the same familiar faces in Paris, on both sides, and the agenda will be a well-thumbed one, too. The debt rescheduling arrangement for the three-year period beginning 1968-69 ended with 1970-71. Total debt rescheduled (hiring the period amounted to Rs 241.5 crores, or rather more than the target of Rs 225 crores. And yet the burden of debt servicing grows heavier. So there will be renewed pleas for more rescheduling. There will also be the usual harangues for softer terms and against tying aid to purchases hum donor countries. In this latter matter some success has recently come our way with the US decision to permit AID loans to be used lor purchases from specified developing countries. Attempts will be made at Paris to open this chink a little wider by getting the other Consortium members to fall in line, though the prospects of success are not exactly bright.