India said on Monday it would pay bilateral debt worth Rs 74.91 billion ($1.59 billion) to more than a dozen countries ahead of schedule in the current financial year to March 2004.
"These include The Netherlands, the Russian Federation, Canada, Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Kuwait, Spain, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Australia, the Czech Republic and Slovak," a government statement said.
The statement said the prepayment of bilateral debt did not cover Japan, Germany, the United States and France. India owes around Rs 588.25 billion to these four nations.
It added the government had decided not to take bilateral aid from countries other than Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, the European Commission and the Russian Federation.
