ISLAMABAD, March 11: The current year is the last year of Pakistan's dependence on IMF credits and the donor's assistance will be discontinued from 2005, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz told the National Assembly here on Thursday.
During the question hour session, the minister said that since the economic revival had put the country on a strong footing, Pakistan would no more accept aid with conditions attached.
However, he said that if at all we would need the assistance of multilateral aid agencies, the government would negotiate fresh deals from a position of strength, he added.
In reply to supplementary questions, Shaukat Aziz said the Zari Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) as well as commercial banks had disbursed Rs30 billion, Rs15 billion each, agricultural loans in the last six months.
A scheme of agriculture credit cards had also been introduced to benefit the farmers community while the leasing sector was also being encouraged to step in this sector, he said.
The minister tried to sidestep a direct supplementary question of PPP member Shah Mehmood Qureshi to explain why there was a difference between the markup rates of loans to the agriculture sector and the industries.
But when the opposition pressed, Shaukat Aziz conceded that the average mark up for the agricultural loan was 11 per cent, if returned in time, otherwise it was 14 per cent, while the markup rate for industries was 8.5 per cent, which in some cases was as low as between 4 to 5 per cent, he said.
A paradigm shift had been introduced on the loans extended by the ZTBL which was recently re-energized and restructured by pumping funds with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), he said.
It was due to the government policies that the ZTBL was no more the only vehicle to lend agricultural loans as new prudential regulations had been introduced where commercial banks were also encouraged to give agri-loans, he said.
The government, he said, had taken steps to provide Islamic banking options to the public, but the system was still in an evolutionary stage. He said steps in line with the report of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CCI) had been taken to introduce interest-free banking.
Full-fledged Islamic banks had been allowed to be set up in the private sector; subsidiaries for Islamic banking had been started by existing commercial banks and stand-alone branches for Islamic banking in existing commercial banks had also been allowed.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had also become a founding member of the Islamic financial services board established in Malaysia on Nov 3, 2002. The SBP, he said, had issued detailed criteria for the establishment of Islamic commercial banks in private sector.
Meezan Bank Limited was issued a license under the criteria to operate as fully-fledged Islamic bank in January 2002, which started commercial operations in March 2002 as a model Islamic bank.
The House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC) Act had also been amended to make its financing Shariah compliant and they had issued a "Asan Ghar Scheme" on the basis of diminishing Musharika, besides in the revised insurance act, Takaful (Islamic insurance) had been added.
The minister also said Pakistan's textile sector was geared up enough to face challenges in the new WTO regime since new technology worth $3 to 4 billion had been imported during the last three years.
In reply to a another question, the minister said the government was not considering ban or quota on the export of yarn as Pakistan was committed to free export and import policy.
