KARACHI, March 24: The State Bank of Pakistan has so far disbursed over Rs15.42 billion as Research and Development (R&D) support against 163,000 claims to the exporters of garments, home textiles, fabrics and leather footwear.

Of this amount, Rs7.94 billion was released to exporters in Karachi, Rs3.57 billion in Lahore and Rs3.01 billion in Faisalabad and the remaining amount to exporters of other cities.

With a view to enhance the efficiency of the process, the State Bank from the start has streamlined its internal procedure for evaluating and settling claims regarding R&D support and remains constantly in touch with the officials of the concerned ministries.

In order to facilitate the exporters, the State Bank has set up Help Desks at its field offices. Besides this, awareness/training sessions have also been arranged for exporters at different cities to enable them to understand documentation requirements for claims.

It may, however, be pointed out that the claims being submitted by the exporters include those for ineligible commodities or countries or pertain to period which is ineligible for claims or claims based on false documents.—APP