22 May 2004	Saturday	02 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, May 21: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture wants Zarai Tariqiati Bank (ZTBL) to charge 5 to 6 per cent on loans as being charged by other commercial banks on non farming loans.

In a detailed budget proposal document, Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah, the President of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, took a serious note of ZTBL charging 14 per cent on loans being given to the farmers.

"The farmers should not be penalized for bad practices of the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP, previous name of ZTBL)," he remarked and has proposed that the ZTBL be cleaned up by injecting funds as has been the case with commercial banks, the United Bank and the Habib Bank. The bad loans portfolio of ZTBL should also be subsidised as has been done in case of commercial banks to reduce cost of borrowing.

Qamaruzzaman Shah has demanded of the government to write off all the loans given to the farmers in calamity stricken areas of Sindh while pointing out that a mere postponement of repayment is not a solution.

These farmers must be given fresh loans which should reflect the actual production cost of crops like cotton, sugarcane, banana, wheat, rice and mangoes. Production cost of these crops, he said, had gone up three times.

He observed that the relief of extension for loans repayment was not being given to Sindh farmers who borrowed from commercial banks. Now that Pakistan has accepted the WTO discipline and is entering into a long term trade relationship with India, the leader of the farmers has advised that government should provide same concessions and facilities to farmers which are enjoyed by the farming community in India, Europe and the US. He said that Europe, the US and India offer heavy subsidy to their farmers.

Therefore, he demanded removal of all up front GST and other levies on import of tractors, agricultural machinery, spare parts of the machinery, fertilizer and other agricultural inputs.

The Chamber has also drawn government's attention towards the fact that for last 15 years Sindh was not getting concessional rated cooperative loans as is being given to the farmers in Punjab.

Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah has drawn government's attention towards four resolutions adopted by the Sindh Assembly on RBOD and LBOD while making it clear that discharge of drain should not be in river and lake waters of Sindh but should be taken to Runn of Kutch and into sea.

The Chamber of Agriculture has rejected the construction of Thar Canal and Kalabagh Dam while urging to keep national integrity and national unity on priority. There is also a plea to encourage to sow beet root and sunflower in Sindh and provide incentives for industrial zone in each of the 16 districts of Sindh.

The chamber has taken note of restriction imposed on wheat movement in the province which deprives farmer of the fair return on his produce. Rural poverty has been estimated at around 40 per cent in Sindh and the Chamber has demanded to make agriculture a profitable business to engage large number of people.

The Chamber has taken exception to the imposition of surcharges on petroleum products. Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah was not happy on his chamber being ignored by the government while framing budgetary policies.