MUZAFFARGARH, June 20: Jaffar Badani is not too much optimistic about the recently promulgated Money Lending Bill by the Provincial Assembly. He has been suffering at the hand of local money lenders because of their high interest for the last several years. He says that the bill will not help him much.
Mr Badani owns two acres in Fatehpur, Alipur tehsil. This year he reaped 120 maunds of wheat crop that is of Rs48,000. Seven maunds went as threshing charges and he stored 40 maunds for his own use.
He sold the remaining 73 maunds for Rs29,200. Of the total profit, Mr Badani gave Rs20,000 to a local shopkeeper who had given him cash for irrigation, fertilisers and pesticides. Mr Badani says if he had had net cash, he would have saved Rs10,000.
The shopkeeper charges 50 percent interest on the borrowed amount. Now Badani is left with a little amount for cotton cultivation. For that crop again, he will have to borrow money from his lender and will be robbed of his profit again.
He says he has no hopes of getting out of the vicious cycle of loaning on high interest rates.
Mr Badani is not alone trapped in the miserable circle. Here in Muzaffargarh, in almost every rural markets, shopkeepers offer fertilisers, pesticides, seeds other agri products to farmers on 50 per cent interest rate. Most of the victims are those farmers who own less than 5 acres.
Sajjad Baloch of Basti Meran Hayat grows tomato on his five acres. He also borrows money from a local dealer or arrhti. The arrhti lends him money with a 50 per cent rate interest rate. When the crop is ready, he gets back his loan with interest. But this is not the end.
The arrhti forces Mr Baloch to sell his tomatoes to him at a throwaway price. Mr Baloch cannot offend him. The arrhti loads the yield in lorries and transport it to Peshawar or Karachi where he sells it for big profit. The arrhti gets richer crop by crop while Mr Baloch remains hand to mouth.
If the government gives loans to small farmers, they can earn good profit and in return they will reinvest it, said Baqir Badani, a lecturer at a local college. When asked why they did not get loans from the Zarai Taraqiati Bank which charged less interest, he said the bank’s process was complex while the private lender “facilitated” farmers without any hassle.
Malik Shaukat Husain Budh said the process of getting loans from the Zarai Taraqiati Bank was full of corruption. He said last year, he got loan from the Zarai Taraqiati Bank, Sinawan branch.
The bank sent him a notice to pay Rs93,000 as instalment. When he reached the bank to pay the amount, officials asked him to pay Rs116,000 instead of 93,000. When he showed the notice to the manager, he was told the notice carried a clerical mistake.
Zarai Taraqiati Bank Zonal Chief Syed Shahid Ali Shah said the bank had facilitated thousands of small farmers in the district. The bank gives Rs16,000 loan for one acre. About inflated notices, he said the mistakes were rare and to err is human.
The Money Lending Bill will yield results if farmers are facilitated at their doorsteps. Otherwise private lenders are in with their serve-and-rob agenda.