WHILE submitting the application form at the main branch of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in Chakwal city, Shamrez Khan’s eyes sparkle. The 30-year-old man is among the lucky ones who have successfully grappled with the process of preparing their documents for seeking a loan under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Youth Business Loan Scheme.

Shamrez runs a tiny shoe shop in Kariala village, some 12 kilometres to the south-east of Chakwal. He wants to extend it with a Rs300,000 investment. “I’m living hand to mouth and my daily income is not satisfactory,” he told Dawn at the NBP’s main branch on Bhoun Road. “I’m seeking a loan to expand my business.”

Had tough conditions to apply for loans under the new scheme not been eased, he would never have been able to apply. After these were relaxed, Shamrez got his cousin to act as a guarantor on the basis of the ownership of some agricultural land, and set out to fulfil the requirements of application.

But although he studied up to the eighth grade level, Shamrez does not know how to use the internet. “I got my application form filled out and a feasibility report prepared by the Khalid Type College,” he says, explaining that “they charged me Rs1,000”.

It remains to be seen whether the young men applying for loans will get them. Currently, however, the majority of would-be applicants — many of them illiterate or semi-educated — are finding themselves at the mercy of exploiters offering their services, at a hefty cost, for preparing business feasibility reports and filling in the application forms.

In Chakwal city, one such shop is located in front of the assistant commissioner’s office. It specialises in preparing different kinds of documents such as domiciles, affidavits and so on. These days, it is flooded with loan-seekers who want to get business feasibility reports prepared. The rates are fixed by the shopkeeper (and owner), who charges Rs1,000 to Rs3,000 for preparing these reports. Further, he advertises by claiming that “the credit for having the earlier tough conditions eased goes to us. We forced the government to ease the requirements,” he says. Asked how, he says that he made a call and wrote a letter to a high-ranking official, asking him to ease the conditions so that the common man could benefit from the scheme. This, he says, is how he convinces loan-seekers to use his services.

“I was shocked when a loan-seeker told me that he was asked to pay Rs20,000 for the preparation of a feasibility report for the Rs2 million loan,” says Zia Ahmed, manager of the NBP’s main branch in Chakwal. (This is the maximum loan amount that can be sanctioned under the scheme.)

The bank manager said that he had requested the relevant authorities to take action against those involved in fleecing loan-seekers. “Various feasibility reports are already available on the website of the Small & Medium Enterprises Development Authority,” he said. “The loan-seekers should not be victimised by fraudsters.”

But many loan-seekers do not know how to make amendments to tailor the downloadable feasibility reports.

Since the prime minister launched his flagship initiative on Nov 10 last year, more than 36,000 young men have picked up application forms in Chakwal district alone. Only 120 forms have, however, been submitted.

Initially, hard-to-meet conditions stifled the submission of application forms but banks are now beginning to receive applications attached with business feasibility reports.

“Before the requirements were eased, hardly a single application form was submitted,” says Ziaul Haq, who is in charge of the loan counter at the bank. “Now, however, five to 10 applications are being submitted on a daily basis.”

The government had promised that applicants would be informed of the status of their applications within 15 days. This, though, seems to be turning out to be a false promise since several applicants are still waiting for a decision two months after they submitted their forms. “I submitted my application form on Dec 12, but I’m still waiting for the bank’s reply,” says Noman Afzal, an aspirant from Chakwal city. On their part, NBP officials blame the delay on unannounced and lengthy power-cuts. “We can only process one application a day due to load-shedding,” says an official.

Yet Shamrez Khan, who submitted his documents on Jan 21, remains optimistic.