PESHAWAR: President of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) Sherbaz Bilour held a meeting with Deputy Governor, State Bank of Pakistan Sima Kamil in her office in Karachi.

During the meeting SCCI chief apprised that the commercial banks have declared Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as “red zone” and no provision of loans to the business community. The top officials of the SBP were present during the meeting, according to a statement issued here on Wednesday.

Businesses and industrial growth had miserably affected due to prolonged war against terrorism and now the situation has further deteriorated after outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, Bilour said.

He said the attitude of the commercial banks was unfriendly with the business community despite the present circumstances, which is highly deplorable, demanding the government to announce interest-free loans for KP traders immediately. Praising the SBP for introducing a cashless system, Bilour expressed the hope that the initiative could be helpful to bring further improvement and transparency in the banking system. He assured the deputy governor SBP for making this step a success. He also appreciated the government for introducing business-friendly policies as electric vehicle policy, reduction in tax ratio, special incentive for construction industry, saying that the government’s step can also benefit allied industries of the construction sector and urged for inclusion of allied sectors into the fiscal relief package announced for the construction industry. The SCCI president proposed that SCCI and SBP should make joint efforts for making favourable environment for business and industrial growth as well as attracting new investment in the province.

Later, SBP Deputy Governor Sima Kamil agreed with recommendations and proposals of the SCCI chief and said that SBP had introduced a number of schemes for ease of doing business, especially for covid-19 affected businesses and industries.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020