PESHAWAR, Dec 5: The NWFP government has availed a fresh credit of Rs800 million from a private bank to support its commodity operations during the current financial year.

“Bank Alfalah has released Rs150 million to the food department as part of a loan of Rs800 million,” said a press release issued by the bank on Friday.

The first tranche was released in accordance with an agreement between the bank and the provincial food directorate.

This is for the first time that the provincial government has availed credit line from the bank to procure wheat.

It is the latest addition to the loans the provincial government has obtained recently to carry out commodity operations, mainly procurement of wheat, to meet the consumption demand over the quantity produced locally.

In November, the provincial government entered into loan agreements with the Muslim Commercial Bank and the United Bank.

The government would repay the loan to the two banks at an annual markup rate of 2.08 per cent.

The provincial government plans to procure about 50,000 tons of wheat from the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Supply Corporation (Passco) during the September-December quarter.

The credit lines would be utilized to procure wheat from Passco by making payment in advance to save an interest of Rs15.46 million.