Britain may have to pay a hefty $63 billion (approximately Rs 4.19 lakh crore) as its Brexit bill to detach itself from the European Union, according to a report in BloombergQuint.
Britain may have to pay a hefty $63 billion (approximately Rs 4.19 lakh crore) as its Brexit bill to detach itself from the European Union, according to a report in BloombergQuint.
The report quoted a Bloomberg interview with Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern who became the first EU leader to put a figure on the size of the Brexit bill.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is likely to invoke the Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to leave the European Union before March this year. Negotiating the Brexit bill is expected to be one of the initial heated debates.
While reiterating his statement, Kern warned Britain that "there are no free lunches", a statement that hadn't gone down well with the Parliamentary members, the report said.
While some called it "nonsensical", others said it was an "absurd" idea. Kern said the "sum was an EU calculation that will be presented to May once she formally initiates talks."
Iain Duncan Smith, former cabinet minister said, "This figure is a nonsense that's been conjured up by EU officials who are behaving like children. For the Austrian chancellor to even refer to it is quite absurd. As for saying there's going to be no free lunch for Britain, we paid so much into the EU budget over the years, we pretty much bought the damned restaurant."
Trade Secretary of Britain Liam Fox called the idea of a Brexit bill absurd and said London won't pay for any projects after November.
Britain voted to split up with the European Union in a nation-wide referendum last July. With most of the world leaders sans the then US Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin urging the people to vote to 'stay' in the EU, they opted to 'leave'. The referendum result was announced on July 27, 2016.
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