ISLAMABAD: Banks have disbursed Rs 368.7 billion agriculture credit during first ten months of previous fiscal year which was 73.74 percent of overall annual target of Rs 500 billion.
The disbursement was 27.84 percent higher than of Rs. 288.387 billion made during corresponding period last year.
Sources in Agriculture Division said the decision has been taken to facilitate farmers’ community as the government has seriously focused on bringing improvement in real sector growth through improvement in agriculture, industrial and services sectors. In this connection, a number of public sector development programmes have been initiated in production and infrastructure sectors.
The sources said efforts were also made to provide better supply of inputs including quality seeds, fertilizer and pesticides etc. in timely manners to increase agriculture produce and encourage small poor farmers.
During the period, the government remained focused on improving vocational and technical education networks to provide more skilled labour to industrial sector and encourage small and medium industries through targeted loans.
The sources said State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has also reduced discount rate gradually and reached at 7.0 percent which is the lowest in last 42 years and was also a major incentive for business community to increase economic activities.
The SBP also reduced mark up rate on Export Refinance from 9.4 percent to 6.0 percent and Long Term Financing Facility rates from 11.4 percent to 7.5 percent, which has reduced financial cost of exporters and will improve exports in coming months.
The government has established Land Port Authority (LPA) to oversee cross-border movement of goods and people. This project is a part of an Integrated Transit Trade Management System (ITTMS) at border customs station to facilitate trade with neighboring countries.
The LPA would act as a common platform for all regulatory agencies including customs, immigration, terminal operator, security, quarantine, banks, shipping agencies and freight forwarders etc.
The successful implementation of the project will make Pakistan third country in South Asia after Bangladesh and India, having dedicated land ports for handling goods and passenger traffics at borders. It is a major step to transfer Pakistan into a regional trade hub.
