Parliament today passed a bill to increase the authorised capital of Export Import Bank

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of India (Exim Bank) from Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore.

Introducing the Export Import Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2011, in the Upper House, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said it seeks to authorise the government to raise the authorised capital of the bank in future through a notification.

The Lok Sabha had approved the Bill on December 21.

The bill also seeks to increase the number of executive directors in the bank to two from one at present.

Replying to the debate, Meena said the EXIM bank has issued 180 Lines of Credit (LOCs) to 53 countries worth $ 6.3 billion till March 31 this year and will be issuing loans worth $ 5 billion to Africa as promised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his trip to Ethiopia.

Rejecting criticism that rate of lending loans was less than that of growth rate of exports, he said, "The growth rate of lending has been 24 per cent whereas the growth rate of Indian exports has been 21 per cent between 2001-02 to 2010-11."

The Minister agreed that the percentage of loans to be granted to small enterprises was 2.6 per cent of total loans issued and there was need to increase it.

On the non-performing assets of the bank, Meena said it was only 1.4 per cent of the loans worth Rs 46,000 crore issued by the bank.