Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has swapped its expensive foreign commercial loans with local rupee loan of Rs 4 billion with a syndicate of United Bank Limited and Muslim Commercial Bank Limited, resulting in considerable reduction in mark-up rate from 6.84 percent to 2.3 percent.
On the occasion of the loan signing ceremony held at CAA headquarters on Saturday, Bashir Ahmed Abbasi, Director Finance, CAA explained that the authority is the first public sector body that has successfully undertaken the swapping of expensive commercial foreign loans with local rupee loan and as a result CAA will be saving Rs 621 million.
Swapping of foreign commercial loan will also greatly benefit the Government of Pakistan by reducing its sovereign guarantee exposure on foreign commercial loan and subsequently the rupee liquidity position of State Bank of Pakistan will also be utilised, he explained.
Bashir Abbasi added that the swapping will go as a landmark in improving CAA's cash flow in the next three years and debt liability will considerably reduce from Rs 2.5 billion to Rs 225 million.