Bangladesh got $1.15 bln loans in first 10 mths of 07/08 FY

DHAKA, June 15 (Reuters) - Bangladesh received nearly $1.15 billion in loans to April, the first 10 months of the fiscal year 2007-08, to meet its development needs and to pay import bills, officials said on Sunday.

The disbursement was about $615 million more compared with the same period of the previous year, but 80 percent less than the amount promised by development agencies, they said.

"Due to stringent conditions and a complicated project implementation process we did not get the full committed amounts from the development partners," said Monwara Begum, a joint secretary in the finance ministry's economic relations division.

"For example they asked us to ensure the 'right to information' which is related to government policy and time consuming to implement," she told Reuters.

The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Monetary Fund and others committed to give Bangladesh $2.1 billion in the year to June 30, 2008.

Both the agencies and bilateral donors have repeatedly blamed Bangladesh for poor quality and slow implementation of development projects.

Bangladesh had to repay more than $350 million in loans and interest in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, officials said.

Due to the shortfall in foreign loans, the government has to rely on domestic borrowing to finance budget deficits, they said.

It had to borrow nearly 140 billion taka ($2 billion) from domestic sources to finance its deficit. Additional subsidies for food, fertiliser and fuel pushed up the budget deficit to 4.8 percent in the year, compared to 4.2 percent targeted originally.