India's external debt rose by 6.5 per cent to a whopping $112.10 billion by the end of 2003, mainly due to a surge in Non-Resident Indian deposits.

However, the debt position till December was a shade lower than $112.72 billion till September 2003.

"The share of government debt in the total debt outstanding declined from 60.1 per cent at March end 1995, to 39.2 per cent in December end 2003," the report said.

India's foreign currency reserves, including foreign currency assets of the Reserve Bank of India, gold and special drawing rights stood at $101.83 billion at the end of December 2003.

RBI's foreign currency assets were at $97.62 billion, which provided around 87 per cent cover for external debt outstanding last year.

The US dollar, which is witnessing a depreciation against the rupee, constituted 41.6 per cent of the debt stock till December 2003 compared to 54.3 per cent in March end 2002.

According to figures released by the finance ministry, long-term deposits of Non-Resident Indians zoomed by 32.5 per cent to $28.96 billion last year pushing up the overall external debt of the country.

Prepayment of foreign loans in the last year reduced the debt to multilateral agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank by 6.2 per cent to $30.56 billion.

Debt on account of bilateral loans taken by India, mainly from developed nations, however, increased by 7.9 per cent to $17.94 billion.

External commercial borrowing also came down sharply by 8.8 per cent to $20.54 billion, while export credit also declined by 4.6 per cent to $4.77 billion.

The country's local currency or rupee debt dipped by 5.9 per cent to $2.63 billion till December.

The country's external debt, which stood at $105.22 billion in December 2002, increased to $112.72 billion in September 2003 and then came down marginally to $112.10 billion by December 2003.

The government has been able to check the external debt through a slew of measures like raising funds from least expensive sources, accelerating growth in export, prepaying high-cost debts, maintaining vigil on build up of short-term debt, restricting short term commercial debt and encouraging foreign direct investments.

"External debt to GDP ratio dropped to 20.2 per cent in last fiscal from 30.8 per cent in 1994-95," the ministry said in its quarterly report on external debt.

Debt-service ratio, measured in terms of total debt service payments to current receipts, also declined to 15.8 per cent till March 2003, from 25.9 per cent in 1994-95.

Long term debt dipped marginally by 1.1 per cent during the third quarter of 2003-04, but short-term debt surged by 8.4 per cent.

"The share of government debt in the total debt outstanding declined from 60.1 per cent at March end 1995, to 39.2 per cent in December end 2003," the report said.

India's foreign currency reserves including foreign currency assets of RBI, gold and special drawing rights stood at $101.83 billion at the end of December 2003.

The RBI's foreign currency assets were at $97.62 billion, which provided around 87 per cent cover for external debt outstanding last year.

The US dollar, which is witnessing a depreciation against the rupee, constituted 41.6 per cent of the debt stock till December 2003 compared to 54.3 per cent in March end 2002.