KARACHI: Mian Nasser Hyatt Maggo, President FPCCI, has said that he is eagerly looking forward to have a detailed and tangible consultative process with State Bank of Pakistan ( SBP) officials to work out a progressive and growth-oriented finance package for SMEs of Pakistan - the real engine of economic growth & employment generation in Pakistan.

Expressing his dissatisfaction over the exorbitant interest rate of up to 9% allowed to commercial banks under SBP's SME Asaan Finance Scheme (SAAF).

He demanded that SAAF scheme should not have a total interest rate over 3.0% to make it at par with TERF to make it affordable for SMEs.

Maggo added that SBP's total refinance limit for the program appears to be a small and insignificant amount of Rs.1.19bn as per budget documents for the year 2021-22; under the head of Refinance and Credit Guarantee Scheme for Collateral Free Lending to SMEs. He termed the miniscule amount for the SAAF scheme for the year 2021-22 a joke with SMEs.

Mian Nasser Hyatt Maggo expressed dismay over the fact that the TERF scheme has a total overlay of Rs.560bn, and has mainly gone to large and established businesses and, on the other hand, the SMEs continue to be neglected by SBP.

FPCCI chief has demanded that Pakistan needs an effective, inclusive, wide-ranging and collateral-free SMEs Finance Scheme backed by the State Bank of Pakistan and in principle it should be as big as TERF and should run into billions of rupees.

Mian Nasser Hyatt Maggo said that another glaring flaw in the scheme is that commercial banks will have total discretion in approval of the financing under SAAF; which, in turn, will cause delays and disapprovals.

He demanded that SBP should devise a transparent and definitive mechanism for the effective implementation and enforcement of the SAAF scheme.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021