To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on what basis it was decided to substitute local cost grants to India for debt relief to that country; and if he will give figures for the amounts of such grants for each year between 1978 and the latest year for which figures are available, both the calendar and financial years, and both for commitments and disbursements.
As provided for under the terms of UNCTAD resolution 165, Her Majesty's Government and the Government of India agreed in January 1979 that local cost grants should be provided for India as an equivalent measure to the retrospective adjustment of the terms of past British aid loans. This has enabled the British aid programme to finance poverty-alleviating projects and to increase the effectiveness of projects involving British exports. Prior to 1979, no such provision for local costs support existed.The amounts of such local costs grants, since 1979 when they commenced, and commitments and disbursements, by calendar year are as follows:
| £ million | |||
| Calendar years | Local cost grant agreement | Commitments | Expenditure |
| 1979 | 51·2 | — | — |
| 1980 | 33·2 | 9·5 | 7·9 |
| 1981 | 37·3 | 85·1 | 39·3 |
| 1982 | 39·0 | 110·6 | 31·7 |
| 1983 | 38·4 | 16·4 | 59·4 |
| 1984 | 37·7 | 100·4 | 57·9 |
| 1985 | 36·0 | — | 51·8 |
| 1986 | 34·0 | — | 28·9 |
| 1987 | 69·6 | 43·1 | 14·8 |
| £ million | |
| Financial years | Disbursements |
| 1979–80 | 14·6 |
| 1980–81 | 28·4 |
| 1981–82 | 38·3 |
| 1982–83 | 49·1 |
| 1983–84 | 50·6 |
| 1984–85 | 45·4 |
| 1985–86 | 39·3 |
| 1986–87 | 31·4 |