Agriculture sector lifeline of national economy, needs more attention: Daniyal

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Privatization Daniyal Aziz Tuesday said agriculture was the lifeline of the national economy and a lot more was needed to be done for the promotion of this sector.

According to press release issued here, while chairing a meeting of inter-ministerial committee on Loans for Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Purposes Act, 1973 here, he said “We need to revamp the entire policy regarding loans for opening the doors to allied sectors for sustainable development of national economy."

It was proposed in the meeting that agriculture advisory committee must be formulated in order to streamline the matters relating to agricultural loans.

He also suggested the requirement for provision of produce index unit (PIU) for agriculture loan was to be removed in order to simplify the procedure.

The minister directed the heads of financial institutions to pay attention to provide financial services to other sectors of national economy for rapid and balanced economic growth in the country.

He called upon the financial institutions to enhance their outreach in rural areas of the country to tackle their financial requirements, stressed the need for channelizing the remittances and utilizing them for productive measures.

The minister said that all banks, micro-finance institutions would also be taken on board to prepare a comprehensive report which would be submitted in cabinet meeting for approval.

The meeting, attended by the advisor to PM on Revenue, Haroon Akhtar Khan, senior officials of State Bank of Pakistan, ZTBL and Ministry of Finance, deliberated upon the future course of action regarding proposed amendments in the act.

The amendments were proposed on the initiative of Finance Division in the Cabinet meeting held on 29 January, 2018.

The inter ministerial committee was formulated by the cabinet after the submission of summary by Finance Division, related to the announcement made by Finance Minister in his budget speech for FY 2017-18, according to which it was proposed to enhance the rate of produce index unit (PIU) from Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 5,000.

The initiative was meant to facilitate the farmers in terms of credit incurred from banks. The proposal could be materialized only after the amendment in Section (5) 1 of the Loans for Agriculture Purposes Rules 1973.

Consequently, the PM formulated a committee comprising Minister for Power, Minister for Water Resources, Special Assistant to PM on Revenue and Secretary Finance headed by Minister Privatization Daniyal Aziz.

The newly formulated committee was directed by the cabinet to present its report within two weeks of its commencement.