Australia, India to push for IMF quota reforms at G20

Australia on Thursday said it will ‘actively lobby’ with the US to push through the International Monetary Fund quota reforms seeking to providing more voice to the developing countries.

India too will advocate the IMF quote reforms at the two-day meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors beginning Saturday.

"We will actively lobby with the US (over the issue of IMF quota reforms). . . US Congress must understand that it is in the interest of the US to reform the IMF," Joe Hockey, Treasurer Australia, told reporters here on the sidelines of Institute of International Finance conference.

The IMF quota reforms, which seeks to increase the voting share of emerging economies including India, had hit a roadblock with the US Congress refusing to increase the American contribution to the multilateral body.

Besides the IMF quota reforms, the G20 ministerial, which will be attended by Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram and RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, will focus on implications of US Fed tapering of bond purchases on emerging economies and the steps being taken by the different nations to fight corruption and combat tax evasion.

India is likely to vigorously push for early completion of the IMF quota reforms at the ministerial meeting of the G20, a club of rich and developing nations.

The IMF reviews members' quotas once in five years and the last such review took place in December, 2010. India has already consented to its quota increase under the review though it would cost the exchequer Rs 14,000 crore (Rs 140 billion).

Once implemented, India's share will increase from the current 2.44 per cent to 2.75 per cent, following which the country will become the eighth largest quota holder at the IMF, up from the 11th

position.

Worried over the failure of the US Congress to enhance contribution to the IMF, the multi-lateral funding agency has postponed the 15th quota review by one year to January 2015.

"Given the delay (of the 14th round), the executive board has concluded that additional time will be needed to complete its work on the 15th review," IMF had said in a statement earlier.

The IMF had also urged the member countries which have not yet accepted the 14th quota review, to ratify it without delay.

The 14th general review of quota and reform was adopted by the IMF in December 2010 to give greater voice to emerging economies.

The issues concerning completion of the 14th quota reform are likely to be taken up at the Spring Meeting of IMF and the World Bank which will be held in April, 2014.

Referring to the issue of scaling down of bond purchases by the US Federal Reserve, popularly called tapering, Hockey said that though the US Fed has the right to do what was good for Americans, it cannot remain unmindful of the implications of its actions on the rest of the world.

US tapering too is expected to be a running theme at the G20 ministerial meeting in Sydney.

The series of ministerial meetings will culminate in the G20 leaders summit to be held at Brisbane on November 15-16.