March 8, 2003	Saturday	Muharram 4, 1424

ISLAMABAD, March 7: The State Bank of Pakistan will have to face a loss of roughly Rs20 billion by June 30 this year because of reduction in the interest rates of the treasury bills.

Official sources said here on Friday that a number of factors including sterilization cost, low return on dollar and the appreciation of rupee would reduce the central bank profit by Rs20 billion at the end of the current financial year.

Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance Shaukat Aziz when contacted told Dawn that he did not have certain firm estimate about the reduction of the profit of the State Bank by June 30 this year.

“But I agree with you that the issues like sterilization cost, depreciation of dollar and appreciation of rupee will certainly reduce some good profit of the central bank,” he conceded.

However, he assured that the government will meet its annual revenue collection target of Rs460 billion during 2002-03. He said the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has met all its targets during the first seven month of the current financial year.

To a question he said that he was holding a meeting with the senior bankers on Saturday at Karachi to discuss the problems of the banking industry.

Nevertheless, he said, he would ask the bankers that investing in treasury bills was no more a viable option and that they should go in other fields including the agriculture sector.

The issue of offering increased loans to the business community would also come up for discussion with the bankers, he said.