The Senate was informed on Tuesday that the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd (ZTBL) has written off Rs 3.523 billion loans to different people during 2004-07 period. In responding to a question from Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, the finance ministry provided details of the ZTBL loans which were disbursed, recovered, and written off during this period.
According to details, the ZTBL disbursed Rs 141,476.021 million during 2004 to 2007, of which Rs 3523.208 million were written off. Further, Rs 37408.838 million were disbursed during 2004-05, Rs 47594.136 million during 2005-06 and Rs 56473.047 million during 2006-07. Out of this Rs 502.474 million were written off during 2004-5, Rs 973.266 million during 2005-06 and Rs 2047.468 million during 2006-07.
The House was also informed that total amount of Rs 145,485.138 million loans were recovered during 2004 to 2007. In reply to a supplementary question, Finance Minister Naveed Qamer said that the government would not write off any loan in future and has introduced crops insurance scheme to compensate the farmers in case of any natural damage to their crops.
Most of the members asked the government to recover the written off amount and deposit it in the national exchequer. Meanwhile, Senate Deputy Chairman Jan Mohammad Jamali said that the matter was sub jutice due to being challenged in the court.
The ministry also informed the House that Rs 85,515 million funds had been spent on pro-poor sectors such as health, education, water supply, roads, population planning in Sindh during 2006-07. The member had questioned why the government had spent Rs 12531 million on the law and order from the funds allocated in the name of pro-poor sectors and poverty related expenditure, whereas not a single penny had been spent on village electrification program and Khushal Pakistan fund.
The senators from Balochistan lost temper over not being given employment for Baloch youth in the Trade and Transport Facilitation Unit (TTFU) of the Ministry of Commerce. The House was also informed that CDA has planned to open 10 new sectors in Islamabad, and the process for acquisition had been started and four sectors had been awarded, whereas the remaining would be awarded within one month, and the acquisition process was likely to be completed by July 2009.