Tuesday, September 19 2006 11:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Singapore: India and other developing countries yesterday (Sept 18, 2006) lost their campaign to stall a proposal that grants more powers for China, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey in the International Monetary Fund, but leaves others with diminished rights.

The resolution on giving more say to the four countries got an overwhelming 90.6 per cent of votes, while only India, Brazil and 21 other developing nations in the 184 member IMF cast a ballot against the proposal,a Fund statement said here.

Only 85 per cent of the total votes were required for adopting the resolution.

With today's reform, India's voting rights in IMF get diminished to 1.91 per cent as against 1.95 previously while that of Brazil gets reduced to 1.40 per cent from 1.43.

Whereas, that of China has increased from 2.98 per cent to 3.72, while Mexico from 1.21 to 1.45, South Korea from 0.77 to 1.35 and Turkey from 0.45 as against 0.55 per cent.



Consequent to the increase in powers of these four members, even developed countries would have to forego some of their voting rights, with United States now having 17.1 per cent as compared to 17.40 previously.

Japan too would be left with 6.13 as against 6.24 per cent earlier. Germany will have 5.99 against 6.09 earlier, France and Britain 4.94 as against 5.03, Italy 3.25 as against 3.31 earlier.

The powers, technically described as quotas, determine a country's voting rights and access to funds in IMF.

Reacting to the vote, a top Indian official said, "We have lost the vote but not the argument." Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram had earlier described the restructure formula as 'flawed.'