A parliamentary panel has asked the public sector and private banks, especially Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL), to disburse more agricultural loans to the farmers of the backwards areas in a bid to increase the productivity and bring them at par with the farmers of the developed areas.

These directions were given by the Senate Functional Committee on Problems of Less Developed Areas in its meeting held here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Senator Usman Khan Kakar. The participants were given a briefing on bank loans granted, recovered, waived off and outstanding for all the less developed areas of the country.

The meeting was attended among others by senators Nighat Mirza, Sardar Shafiq Tareen, Haji Momin Khan Afridi and Moulvi Faiz Muhammad, joint secretary finance and representatives from Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited.

Officials while giving the details of the ZTBL loans extended to the farmers of less developed areas in 2019 in Punjab province said that a total 33,461 borrowers were given agricultural loans worth Rs 6.166 billion in four districts of Punjab including Layyah, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur. They said that 10 percent of the total agricultural loans disbursed in Punjab during 2019. In Sindh ZTBL provided Rs 2.11 billion loans among 7,144 borrowers in 9 districts of the province including Badin, Dadu, Jaccobabad, Kamber Shahdad Kot, Kashmore, Sanghar, Tharparkar and Umerkot.

The bank provided Rs 746.336 million agricultural loans to 3,287 farmers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) in 11 districts which included Bannu, Battagram, Bunair, Chitral, DI Khan, Dir, Kohistan, Lakki Marwat, Shangla and Tank. In Balochistan 281 borrowers were given Rs 86.98 million agricultural loans in districts Barkhan, Bolan, Jaffarabad, Kalat, Khuzdar, Kohlu, and Lasbela. In Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 2,659 borrowers were disbursed Rs 3777.264 million in Bagh, Bhimber, Hattian, Haveli, Kotli, Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Poonch and Sudhnoti. In Gilgit-Baltistan 1,421 borrowers were given Rs 328.547 million in Astore, Diamer, Gilgit, Ghizer and Skardu.

The committee observed that the comparative analysis can be carried out only when figures of loans for developed areas are also provided province-wise and asked to submit the same in the next meeting.

Against the agricultural loans in Punjab, Rs 7.977 billion have been recovered, Rs 16.72 million were remitted and Rs 6.715 billion are outstanding. In Sindh loans recovered are of Rs 2.23 billion, Rs 6.17 million loans were remitted and Rs 3.1 billion are outstanding. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Rs 956.28 million have been recovered, Rs 1.91 million are written off, and Rs 221 million are outstanding. In Balochistan, Rs 129.48 million have been recovered and Rs 100.37 million are outstanding. In Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Rs 468.6 million have been recovered, Rs 0.77 million are written off and Rs 163.57 million are outstanding. In Gilgit-Baltistan, Rs 409.76 million have been recovered, Rs 1.08 million are written off and Rs 273.23 million are outstanding.

The committee observed that small farmers shouldn't be harshly treated and punished if they are unable to return loans due to some natural calamity or some other issue of resources.

The committee was told that a total of 966 people from less developed areas are currently working in ZTBL out of them 236 are from Punjab, 213 from Sindh, 154 from KPK, 32 from ex-FATA, 185 from Balochistan, 76 from AJK and 70 are from GB.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019