General Motors is looking to pay back the federal government $6.7 billion dollars in one lump sum instead of making quarterly payments. The $6.7 billion dollars that is going to be repaid is only a fraction of the outstanding $50 billion in loans that GM has from the US Treasury.

I am definitely happy to hear that we are getting some of our money back. Here is the full story.

General Motors is considering repaying all of its $6.7 billion in government loans in one lump sum, rather than through quarterly payments as currently planned, Chief Executive Ed Whitacre told journalists during an online press briefing Tuesday.

The loans are only a small fraction of the roughly $50 billion of direct support the automaker received from the U.S. Treasury as the government worked to keep the company from going out of business over the last 12 months.

Treasury received 61% of GM’s common shares in return for most of the money, as well as $2.1 billion in preferred shares in order not to burden the company with too much debt as it came out of bankruptcy.

On Nov. 16, the company announced plans to start paying back the $6.7 billion loan it still owes Treasury, starting with a $1 billion payment later in December. But even though GM announced a $1.2 billion quarterly loss on that same day — its first quarter since emerging from bankruptcy — the company has the full $6.7 billion in a $17.4 billion escrow account from which it will make those payments if conditions do not worsen and force it to draw down that cash.

Whitacre, former AT&T chairman and CEO, was named the non-executive chairman of GM in July as it emerged from bankruptcy. He assumed the CEO post on Dec. 1, when Fritz Henderson resigned as CEO at a meeting of the GM board.

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