950806

ADBP fixes target of

60 pc against Rs 16b

recoverable loans

ALMAS A KHAN

LAHORE: Loans worth Rs 15 billion were recoverable by the June 30, 1996 for which a target of 60 percent has been fixed by the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP), its Chairman, Badruddin Zahidi said.

Addressing the members of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) here on Sunday the chairman ADBP said that the main emphasis of the bank was on loan requests which are for the purchase of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides.

He said that the bank was not advancing loans to the agro-based industrial units as the loans to the tune of 75 percent have got stuck up and majority of these units had become sick.

He further said that the loans extended to the feudals had shown poor recoveries comparing with credits sanctioned to small farmers due to which the bank had allocated more amount for farmers. He said that in the past only 12 percent loans were sanctioned for the small farmers. However, he said that during the current fiscal the bank had allocated 50 percent for them.

Zahidi said that the government had been paying special attention to the small farmers and in this regard it had introduced Awami Tractor Scheme. He said that the farmers interested in purchasing tractors would have to pay only 12 percent equity and the rest of the price would be paid by the ADBP as a medium term loan. He said that the loans to be sanctioned for the farmers under this scheme were with a mark-up rate of 13.5 percent. He said that if the clients repaid their loans according to the set schedule they would be allowed 1.5 percent rebate in the mark-up.

Earlier, in his speech Sheikh Wahiduddin, acting president of LCCI said that the country was faced with the complex economic problem of stagflation, which was interlocked with unemployment and rising prices. The problem, he said, was further complicated by the recessionary trends in major commodity producing sectors, he said that Pakistan being an agricultural country its per acre yield of crops should be more than the neighbouring countries but currently its per acre produce was less than them.

He expressed his grave concern that Pakistan was still importing wheat, onions, pulses, edible oil meat and many other agricultural items from abroad. He said that the import bill in this account was increasing every year instead of decreasing. "We fail to understand why are we still enormously short of agricultural products in spite of tremendous potential for growth in this sector and adequate resources at the disposal of ADBP", he added.