960416

Bilour for cut

in mark-up

rate on LMM

financing

KARACHI: Senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, president FPCCI, has called for reduction in mark-up rate on local manufactured machinery (LMM) financing to promote local machinery manufacturing in the country.

In a statement issued to the press on Tuesday, the FPCCI President said "our dream to make Pakistan strong economically can only be realized if we take all necessary measures to lay a solid base for rapid industrialization of the country". One of the key measures would be to give pivotal importance to capital goods industry and encourage, rather induce, the prospective investors and entrepreneurs to purchase and install industrial machinery manufactured locally. He pointed out that the countries that have made rapid progress have done so through high emphasis on capital goods industry.

He regretted that the State Bank of Pakistan instead of promoting and encouraging capital goods, industry and the purchase of local manufactured machinery was bent upon literally killing the "mother of all industries". The steady increase in the mark-up rate on concessionary finance for locally manufactured machinery (LMM) from 3 percent to 13 percent over the years under the dictates of international donor agencies is very much deplorable.

He called upon the concerned authorities to review the policy and make the LMM financing concessionary in the real term.