Anjuman Kashtkaran Punjab (AKP) President, Peerzada Abdul Ali Zakir Usmani, said that Federal Government has already asked all the commercial banks to write off the outstanding loans of rice millers and traders of flood-affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan. It is in order to win the political support of the masses ahead of the upcoming polls.
In a Press statement issued here on Saturday, Peerzada said that this facility must be extended to the growers of southern Punjab whose crops and homes devastated in previous flood. Government did not provide them financial assistance of Rs 01 lac for the construction of their homes as per announcement made by Prime Minister. Only Rs 20,000 were paid through Watan cards and remaining Rs 80,000 were denied to more than 90% affected ones. He said that the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet should extend this privilege to the flood-affected persons of southern Punjab. It should write off 50 percent of the outstanding loans including mark-up of rice millers/traders should be picked up by the government for which necessary budgetary provision may be made.
The central bank, in this regard, should direct the Allied Bank, Bank Alfalah, MCB Bank, National Bank of Pakistan, and Small and Medium Enterprises Bank to do the needful. Peerzada Abdul Ali Zakir Usmani said that southern Punjab was a major vote Bank of PPP. Five MNAs were elected from Muzaffargarh district only. He appealed the elected representatives to raise voice in the parliament for the rights of the flood affectees of Muzaffargarh, Layyah and Dera Ghazi Khan district. It may be recalled here that the infrastructure of housing and SME Finance Department of State Bank issued a confidential letter No IM and SMEFD/Flood-Relief/Write-off/12-141 dated January 26 to the said banks. The Bank through this letter seeks the positions of outstanding loans of rice millers and traders of flood-affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan.
The letter stated that the banks should ensure that only the flood-affected in 2010 will get benefits out of this dispensation and this process is to be monitored by SBP. According to the said letter ECC also directed the finance secretary to look into the problems of small farmers with regard to their insured loans and take up the matter with concerned banks and insurance companies.
Industry sources believe that this is a novel way of influence the upcoming general elections and simply a way to give monetary benefit to the voters and political workers of the party. However, the real victims of the floods-farmers and low income class-would not be beneficial of this write-off rather comparatively high-income class of millers and traders will get this relief from the government.
Industry demands the attention of the Write-Off Commission of the Supreme Court constituted in suo motu case regarding loan written-off cases since 1971 to 2010, while they said that the Chief Election Commissioner should also take notice of this pre-poll manipulation at the cost of banking sector. The massive loans' write-off will adversely impact banks balance sheet as increased the volume of already all-time high non-performing loans of the banking industry.