KARACHI, July 10: The Zarai Traqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) has agreed to offer special financing schemes for development of fisheries and livestock sectors in Sindh.

The agreement was reached at a meeting between the Fisheries and Livestock Secretary Shoaib Siddiqi and ZTBL zonal chairman Saleem Akhter Khan at the livestock department on Wednesday.

The ZTBL zonal chief stated the bank had already offered two loan schemes for livestock and was ready to formulate new schemes in collaboration with the department.

Under a financing scheme, a loan of Rs380,700 is extended for feedlot, livestock fattening for farms, comprising 25 heads of cattle.

It is repayable in five years in nine half-yearly installments. Another loan is for an animal breeding centre for Rs202,000 repayable in five years with nine half-yearly installments.

The ZTBL chief further informed the secretary that a Red Meat Financing Package has been prepared for fattening/ rearing of goat/sheep.

Under the scheme, loans would be advanced at the rate Rs5,000 per sheep/goat; Rs3,500 per teddy goat and Rs1,200 per kid (sheep/goat).

Rearing expenses shall be borne by the borrowers from their own resources.

The borrowers will be required to maintain PLS saving deposit accounts with the bank equal to the percentage of loan amount. For new enterprises, the deposit will be five per cent of the loan amount, existing/medium farms 10 per cent and escalators / expanding ones 20 per cent.

The loan would be secured against tangible property and personal surety up to Rs25,000 only.

The animals shall be hypotheticated but no financing will be allowed against the hypothecated value.

The financing period for breeding by new enterprise will be five years with one year grace period and quarterly installments. Loan for fattening purpose would have a financing period of 15 months with 12 months grace period and quarterly installments. For existing / medium enterprises the financing period will be 12 months with six months grace period.

To discuss the modalities of the financing, the livestock department has arranged meeting of fishermen with ZTBL managers in Karachi while meeting with livestock and dairy farmers will be held in Hyderabad next week.

Livestock secretary asked the ZTBL officials to consider reducing its mark-up from eight per cent to a reasonable level, which the small farmers could afford.

He assured them that the department would help in repayment of loans by the farmers.

He said that services of NGOs operating in the interior would be acquired to identify genuine and deserving borrowers, who repay the loan along with generating incomes.

Shoaib Siddiqui told Dawn after the meeting that the Sindh government was giving top priority to the development of fisheries and livestock sectors which could contribute a lot in meeting food needs of the country.

In the new budget, Rs1.6 billions have been allocated for the sector against Rs2.4 billion of last year marking an increase of 33 per cent.