NA body proposes low interest rate on agri loans

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance recommended on Tuesday for reducing interest rate on agricultural loans to 7 percent for the relief of farmers and for development of the sector.

Members of the committee said that the current interest rate on agricultural loans was 14 percent which was too high and the poor farmers were not able to afford such a high rate. They said the traders and industrialists were getting loans at the rate of 6 percent.

Mian Abdul Manan of PML-N said the interest rate on agricultural loans was not more than 6 percent in most of the countries, including India therefore the government should also reduce the interest rates in this regard. Meanwhile briefing the committee regarding details of disbursement of agricultural loans during 2015, the officials of ZTBL informed that total loans worth of Rs95.4 billion during the year 2015 were issued out of which Rs77.6 billion loans were issued in Punjab, Rs13.9 billion in Sindh while Rs300 million in Balochistan.