ISLAMABAD, Jan 1: Minister for Finance Shaukat Aziz has assured the business community that various irritants including those relating to the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) will be removed to encourage increased private sector investment in the country.

“There are irritants and I do recognise that and that is why we are taking necessary measures to remove those irritants which also relate to the CBR,” he further stated.

Inaugurating the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Bank here on Tuesday, he said that irritants existed at federal, provincial and district level, which needed to be removed to facilitate new investment by the private sector.

“There are still 30 agencies which harass people,” he said adding that the government would not tolerate hurdles to increasing business activities and that business community’s genuine complaints in this behalf would be removed.

He expressed the hope that the SME Bank would cater to the requirements of the relatively small entrepreneurs to help them set up their businesses. He said that the SME Bank would play a pivotal role in strengthening the economy and generating new employment opportunities.

Aziz said that the SME Bank will reach its target market through programme lending schemes that had been designed to enable fast processing of loans.

He pointed out that 30 per cent GDP growth came from small and medium enterprises and as such they were an important contributor to improving the country’s economy. “Then 80 per cent employment comes from the SMEs and their share in export is about 25 per cent and that is why it is said that they are important engine of growth.”

Earlier, he said, the government had set up a Koshhali Bank which was providing small loans to the needy people. “And now SME Bank should focus on small and medium lending to the businessmen on merit,” he urged.

The finance minister said that the performance of the SME Bank would be monitored both at federal and provincial level so that Bank’s funds could not be misused and that only the deserving people could get this facility to set up their new businesses.

He said that leasing industry was also a major player to support the SMEs by providing them Rs40 billion lending. Aziz expressed the hope that both the SME Bank and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) would work closely to promote the objectives of extending loans to the genuine businessmen.

Minister for Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood said on the occasion that SMEs must get due attention and expressed the hope that SME Bank would cater to the financial requirements of the business community.

He said while the export financing needs of the exporters were being adequately met, small and medium enterprises should also be offered all possible funds to help raise their different kinds of industries.

President and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the SME Kaiser H. Naseem said that small and medium enterprises sector was an important part of the economic reforms of the present government and that the establishment of the Bank will go a long way in realising the dreams of generating economic activity.

He said the SME Bank, which had been formed through the merger of the Small Business Finance Corporation (SBFC) and the Regional Development Finance Corporation (RDFC), will act as a catalyst through co-finance activities.

Naseem said that lending of the SME Bank will be on the basis of discount rate of the central bank which was currently 10 per cent. There will be Rs500,000 to Rs30 million lending to be made available by the Bank to an individual.