ABBOTTABAD, March 25: Loans totalling Rs65 billion have been disbursed in the agriculture sector till Feb 2005 against the target of Rs85 billion set for the year ending on June 30, 2005. Syed Ishtiaq Ali, director (agriculture sector) of the State Bank of Pakistan, said this at a press conference at the Abbottabad Press Club on Thursday. He was accompanied by officials of MCB and ZBTL. He said under the new vision of the government the agriculture sector, which had earlier received less attention, was being brought on par with other sectors and the target of Rs100 billion loans up to June 30, 2006, set by President Pervez Musharraf, was likely to be achieved ahead of schedule.

He said the SBP had launched a nationwide public awareness campaign and officials of all commercial banks were being given training so that farmers could get maximum facility.

Earlier, he said, the Revolving Credit Scheme (RCS) had been launched and borrowers could benefit from the scheme for three years after getting a first-time loan. So far only five commercial banks had been advancing loans in the agriculture sector but now all the 14 banks had been included in the list due to which total disbursement by the commercial banks increased to 59% while rest of the amount was disbursed by Zari Tariqyati Bank and co-operative banks.

While giving further details of agriculture loans, he said that up to year 2000-2001, the total disbursement of loans was 39 billion which rose to 74 billion in June 2004. He said it was still increasing as the banks had been given special task to develop and strengthen direct relations with peasants.

Earlier Chief Manager SBP Peshawar Zari Dad Khan told journalist that commercial banks had been directed to take back defective currency-notes.

He said strict action would be taken against the banks refusing to accept currency notes of smaller denomination. He said the old system of replacement of worn-out/defective notes had been changed and now all the commercial banks could replace defective notes without any difficulty.