LAHORE, July 25: In compliance with a directive of Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the House Building Finance Corporation has issued a notification for grant of Rs100,000 loans in all the villages.

HBFC managing director BH Qureshi stated this during a meeting with Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool at the Governor's House here on Sunday. He said the HBFC had also implemented the directives of the prime minister in respect of enhancement of loan ceiling for Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad to Rs7.5 million and investment limit for the remaining cities and towns from Rs0.5 million to Rs1 million.

All the HBFC loans, he said, were advanced on 'musharka' basis and were refundable in 25 years with 12.5 per cent mark up. He said that commercial banks were advancing loans on eight per cent mark up but rural population could not avail the facility. Moreover, the housing financing of commercial banks during the past three years constituted only one per cent of the total portfolio.

The governor hoped that the increase in financing ceiling by the HBFC would boost the house building activities throughout the country. He expressed satisfaction over the simplification of the loan sanction procedure and stressed the need for review of the HBFC policy to advance loans to the people only once in a lifetime. He said the people who had paid back a loan should be allowed to avail the facility again.