KARACHI, April 7: The State Bank of Pakistan released an amount of Rs469.170 million on account of 3 per cent mark-up rate subsidy to the spinning sector from July 1 to December 31, 2007 against 504 cases of a total of 157 borrowers.

Earlier, effective July 1, 2007 the federal government had announced a mark-up rate subsidy of 3 per cent to the spinning sector on their outstanding running balances of principal amount of floating rate loans availed by the industry from commercial banks and development finance institutions (DFIs) for financing of import of spinning machinery. The facility is admissible only for one year from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008.

The facility is being administered by the SBP through commercial banks, DFIs and field offices of SBP-BSC. This facility effectively lowers mark-up rate by 3 percentage points on the outstanding balance of advances granted to the spinners during the subsidy period.