The debit totals will, if there are no bookkeeping errors, always equal the credit totals when all transactions are complete.

"They are seeking a very large package" he said, noting that in the past, the largest agricultural credit granted in a single year to South Korea totaled about $750 million, or less than half the current request.

In 2001, when the full amount could be taken, the credits would total $220 million.

The credit totals 39 percent of the original investment amount and is claimed over a period of seven years.

The per-child credit would total $147.6 billion in seven years.

The credit provided to the investor totals 39 percent of the cost of the investment and is claimed over a seven-year period.

The Federal Government holds more than $250 billion in its direct-loan portfolio and has loan guarantees of more than $400 billion, while credit extended by Government-sponsored enterprises totals more than $350 billion - that's over $1 trillion and 15 percent of the total credit outstanding in the United States.

Last year, claims for the nonexistent credit totaled $2.7 billion, David C. Williams, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, told the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.

The bank's credit outstanding totalled over US$3 billion in March 2009 and its deposits, over US$4.8 billion (making it the fifth-largest in Argentina).

The credit totals 39 percent of the original investment amount and is claimed over a period of seven years (five percent for each of the first three years, and six percent for each of the remaining four years).