New Delhi: World Bank, which has been given permission by government to float Rupee bonds, plans to tap the Indian market when the conditions become favourable.

"The government has given us permission to do that (float a Rupee bond). We will do it at appropriate time," Michael Carter, country head of World Bank, said on September 18.

He did not give any figure, but said the proceeds from the bonds would be used for funding projects in the country.

Last fiscal, government had given permission to both World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to float Rupee bonds worth $ 100 million each to fund infrastructure projects in the country.

Carter favoured government's stance of prepaying costly foreign loans saying, "It is part of India's debt management. Last fiscal, government prepaid $ 1.7 billion worth of World Bank loans."

Government is planning to prepay more than $ 2.9 billion worth of costly foreign loans.

According to Finance Ministry officials, the government will prepay $ 1.4 billion multilateral loans taken from World Bank, ADB and others. The Centre will also prematurely retire high cost bilateral loans worth $ 1.5 billion this fiscal.

Government prepayed nearly $ 3.0 billion costly foreign loans to World Bank and Asian Development Bank last fiscal.

The prepayment of costly loans along with debt swap of state loans and buyback of government securities are expected to cut down the interest burden of the Centre, which is pegged at over Rs 1,23,000 crore this fiscal.

PTI