People of calamity-hit areas not to be declared bank defaulters: SBP

ISLAMABAD: Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Yasin Anwar here on Thursday informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs that the people of calamity-hit areas, who have taken loans from private and public banks, would not be declared as defaulters.

The Senate body, which met here with Nasreen Jalil in the chair, was told that the instructions in this regard were issued to banks to exclude the names of the loan defaulters belonging to the calamity-hit areas, besides restructuring their loan repayments.

The SBP Governor said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had constituted a committee to collect the data of defaulters from the SBP and it would further provide the detail to any one who needs it.

All defaulters should resolve the issues with their respective banks because the SBP will provide the final list to the ECP by February 25, he added.

Yaseen Anwar said that out of total import bill, the oil import was one third and whenever the price of oil changed in the international market, it affected the import bill.

The home remittances are increasing day by day after the SBP has taken measures to channelize them through proper channels, he informed the committee.

Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary Finance informed the committee that the limit of loans had not crossed 60 per cent of GDP.

"This is not first time that the limits of debt remained below the 60 per cent of GDP but it is continuing for many years back", he said.

The Finance Secretary said that the loans were on the decreasing trend and no more additional loans were being taken.

"If we pump out the money immediately to repay all loans, it will affect the economy of country negatively", he informed the committee.

The committee was told that under Coalition Support Fund (CSF), about US $ 1.8 billion had been received and about $ 100 million was expected in the near future.

Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood said that the country had suffered a huge loss due to war on terror.

"Under the CSF, we are not receiving the sufficient amount to compensate our real loss incurred due to the war", he maintained.

Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel said that the all banks including government and private, were charging huge service charges on all accounts maintained by the people across the country.

The meeting was told that the minimum balance charges had been ended on all accounts maintained by the people.

The committee recommended that the non-development expenditure of federal and provincial governments should not exceed 10 per cent of the previous year's revenue.