LAHORE, Nov 26: Punjab Cooperatives Minister Col Malik Anwar (retired) has said the government had reimbursed over 60 per cent deposits of cooperative scam victims so far and would complete the refund of the remaining people by the end of 2005.

Presiding over a departmental meeting here on Friday to review the progress of payments to the scam victims here on Friday, he said the National Accountability Bureau had arranged refund of over Rs4 billion to 29,943 depositors of the defunct cooperative finance companies during the past two years. As many as 1,544 victims had been paid Rs36 million during the current month.

He said 100 per cent payments were being made to the victims with up to Rs2 million deposits with NICFC and NICC and 50 per cent to those with higher claims due to increased recoveries.

Nearly Rs900 million had been recovered from the big fish alone. The government had also repaid bank loans of Rs1.06 billion procured for starting payments to the victims.

The minister said large scale recoveries were made possible due to action against the cooperatives managements by the NAB and resolution of legal complications by the government. They were now engaged in investigations against the foreign exchange companies.