15.6.2011
By Simon Miller
The UK's International Monetary Fund (IMF) subscription is set to almost double according to a Statutory Instrument laid before Parliament yesterday.
The draft Statutory Instrument proposes that a "futher subscription of 9,416,600,000 special drawing rights" be enacted.
The drawing rights are unpaid capital which represents the maximum amounts that the IMF can call on a country to lend. When the call comes, the capital is drawn from the Gilt market and sits as a UK government asset within the IMF earning interest.
However, according to Conservative MP Douglas Carswell, this is equivalent to a rise from £10.5bn to £19.7bn.
On his blog, http://www.talkcarswell.com, Carswell wrote: "Published quietly in the House of Commons, it can't hide the fact that that means an increase of £9.2bn in real money.
He added: "Instead that large chunk of taxpayers' wealth is going to be used to prop up the Eurozone. Is this what the IMF is for?
"We borrow money we don't have, to pay vast subs to an organisation not designed to prop up the Eurozone, in order to keep together a monetary union we chose not to join. Who is in charge?"
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