LAHORE: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) on Tuesday urged the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to consider extension in Refinance Scheme to support employees and prevent layoff of workers due to outbreak of coronavirus, by December 31, 2020.

According to a spokesperson, FPCCI President Mian Anjum Nisar while appreciating the initiative of SBP for introducing Refinance Scheme, which had helped many industrial and service oriented sectors to retain employees during coronavirus pandemic, stated that since the companies that availed this credit facility through banks had not been recovered from devastating economic impact of Covid-19, it would be advisable to extend this scheme till end of the year.

Mian Anjum Nisar urged the Ministry of Finance and SBP to review the prevailing economic situation closely before discontinuing the credit facility on concessional markup rate, as such the small and medium sized businesses had not been able to regain pre-corona economic stability.

He said that under the SBP’s Refinance Scheme to Support Employment and Prevent Layoff of Workers due to the impact of COVID-19, businesses that committed to not lay off workers in the next three months could avail credit through banks for the three months of wages and salaries expenses at a concessional markup rate.