KARACHI, Dec 22: The garment industry has received a sum of over Rs9.8 billion as reimbursement regarding the Research and Development (R&D) support during the first six months of the current year, said a State Bank report.
The SBP also reported huge disbursement of loans to the textile sector under the Long- Term Financing Scheme for Export-Oriented Projects (LTF-EOP).
The government has increased the R&D support scheme to help the ailing garment industry which has been failing to compete in the world market.
The State Bank, as of Dec 19, 2006, has reimbursed R&D claims of Rs10.2 billion against 91,061 cases settled.
“Of these, approximately Rs84 billion have been reimbursed to the garments sector against 87,299 cases from July 2005 to Dec 19, 2006,” said the SBP. The SBP said Rs340 million were reimbursed to the home textiles and fabrics sector against 3,620 cases from August 2006 to Dec 19, 2006.
“It is encouraging to report that as of Dec 20, 2006, Rs29 billion have been disbursed, of which Rs20.2 billion disbursed to the textile sector under the debt swap option, while fresh disbursements constitute Rs8.8 billion,” said the SBP.
Under the debt swap option, privatized banks have swapped Rs14.9 billion followed by private banks (Rs3 billion), foreign banks (Rs2.1 billion) and development finance institutions (Rs120 million).
Disbursements under the LTF-EOF scheme to new projects on an aggregate basis as on Dec 20, 2006, stood at Rs8.8 billion. Like debt swap, the privatized banks availed Rs3.6 billion, followed by the private banks (Rs3.2 billion), foreign banks (Rs1.1 billion) and DFIs Rs0.78 billion.
