HYDERABAD, Dec 24: Loans of growers in flood-affected areas would not be waived but rescheduled for next year to let them repay in easy instalments, President of the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL), Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf said on Friday.
Talking to journalists during a visit to Hyderabad zonal office, he expressed surprise over reported news that the bank had waived loans of about Rs4 billion.
“We have requested the State Bank of Pakistan to provide us with Rs3 billion for giving new loans but there was no possibility of waiving the pending loans,” he added.
The PPP regimes, he said, had always supported the farming community and the president’s promise of looking into the product index unit for revision, was a proof to it, he said.
Supporting the proposal for tax on agriculture, he said, farmers could adjust it as overhead expenditure. The running of government affairs required tax collection which would eventually be for farmers’ benefit. Farmers owning more than 50 acres of land should pay taxes which would not affect them rather help in documenting the economy, he said.
The ZBTL has introduced different technologies for increasing farm productivity. For mechanised farming, he said, collaboration with various firms was being worked out.
Praising the bank’s policies, he said that the profit in 2009 increased to Rs4 billion from Rs2 billion a year earlier, while non-performing loans dropped to 11 per cent from 30 per cent.
The ZTBL believed in persuasion instead of harassment and this had yielded positive results, he said.
Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf ruled out arrest of farmers for recovering loans. He praised the employees for the bank’s remarkable performance.
The bank is seeking help of a Chinese firm for promotion of bio-gas which is environmental-friendly. It is also trying to introduce solar energy.
A Chinese firm is about to initiate sprinkler and drip irrigation projects which will help save water while negotiations are underway with a Korean firm for generating bio-gas which doesn’t releases sulphur, he said.
About promotion of olive plantation, he said that a nursery was being developed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and plants would later be distributed among farmers.
Efforts to produce off-season fruits and vegetables through tunnel technology are being made in Sindh after Punjab and many industrial groups are buying land for cultivation, he said.
Bio-fertiliser is another area which was being developed because it protects land from harmful affects of chemical fertilisers. He also said that about 50,000 Chinese tractors would soon reach the country.
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