North Karachi Association of Trade & Industry (NKATI) has lauded the government’s refinance scheme and have expressed their thanks to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Finance Advisor Hafeez Shaikh and Governor State Bank Reza Baqir on fulfilling NKATI demands. This scheme is expected to help the businesses and industries to pay their workers even during this time of lockdown amid COVID-19.
Capt. A Moiz Khan, patron in chief NKATI, president Nasim Akhtar, in a statement said that to make this scheme more effective, 4 percent markup should also be abolished and interest-free loans provided so that those industrialists across the country can also benefit from it who do not want to work on mark-up.
President Site Association of Industry (SAI), Suleman Chawla commenting on the scheme introduced by SBP on 10th April, 2020 to avoid layoff of workers, said that his association suggests the following:
1) Credit Guarantee: In these uncertain times, banks will not entertain fresh disbursement requests especially from SMEs who do not have additional collateral to offer to secure the loan.
The way out of this predicament is to push SBP to offer 100 percent credit guarantee against this scheme otherwise disbursement will be dismally low.
2) Wage support by Government: All over the world, cost has been borne by governments by reimbursing up to 80 percent payroll cost. We urge government to burden at least 66.66 percent of the labour cost in the shape of repayment of this loan. As loan disbursements will be verified by banks, level of compliance will be high ensuring that funds have reached the intended audience.
