New Delhi: Faced with a total external debt of $ 102 billion, government has prematurely retired high cost loans worth $ 2,856 million in the current financial year, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said in Lok Sabha.

While it retired $ 1,688 million to the World Bank, the amount retired to the Asian Development Bank was $ 1,158 million, Singh said in a written reply.

On domestic debt, government is implementing the Debt Swap Scheme from this year for enabling states to prepay outstanding high cost Central loans and advances, he said.

He said some states, including Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Orissa and West Bengal have requested assistance to overcome liquidity problems.

To a DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) member's query on the Centre's reaction to the Chief Justice of Tamil Nadu allegedly saying that financial emergency should be declared in the state, Singh said, "I don't think justices ought to comment on finances of states".

However, when the DMK member was not satisfied with the reply, Singh said there was no reason to declare financial emergency in the state. The issue also stirred a brief verbal duel between AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and DMK.

To a question if government was considering introducing consignment tax, he said there was no such proposal and what was under consideration was Value Added Tax (VAT).

PTI