PPP, PML-N meetings: Recover loans from 1,300 defaulters, SBP to be told

Shaikh says that the total amount written off before banks were privatised was Rs96 billion.

ISLAMABAD: The government and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have decided to direct the State Bank of Pakistan to start recovering loans that were reportedly written off under influence.

Loans will now be recovered from 1,300 defaulters of 16 financial institutions.

Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that the central bank will be told to determine, within three weeks, loans that were written off under political or other influence. “The central bank will also look into whether a new law is required to recover these loans,” he said.

Shaikh said that the total amount written off before banks were privatised was Rs96 billion.

The recovery of loans is one of the ten points presented to the government by the PML-N for implementation within 45 days.

Earlier, both parties had decided to recover loans written from the top 100 bank defaulters since 1971.

“Only nine days are left and the government will have to prove its progress. The central bank will have to begin recoveries after three weeks,” said PML-N’s chief negotiator Senator Ishaq Dar, after the meeting.

Speaking on re-opening corruption cases against President Zardari in Swiss courts, Dar said that the government has assured that it will take a decision in lieu of the Supreme Court’s upcoming judgment on three pending review petitions.

“As soon as the Supreme Court gives its decision on the review petitions, the government will implement it accordingly,” he said.

The PML-N has linked its support for levying the Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) and other allied revenue measures to full implementation of its ten-point  agenda. “Until there is progress on all the ten points, the PML-N will not extend its support for any revenue measure,” Dar said. He said revenue measures worth a few billion rupees is a petty matter compared to leakages of around Rs700 to Rs1,000 billion and bleeding public organisations.

Responding to a question, Dar said that the government will send a draft of price control measures during the next couple of days after consulting the provinces.

On the issue of a new accountability law, Shaikh said informal discussions with the PML-N will continue until February 22 when both parties will meet again to review the implementation.

Dar said he had also raised the issue of gas supply to Punjab and restrictions imposed according to decisions of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh high courts. Provincial courts have ordered gas utility companies to first meet the needs of gas-producing units and then supply the surplus to gas-deficient provinces.

“It is a burning issue. The cut in gas supply has rendered thousands jobless and closed many factories,” he said. The PML-N, he said, has pushed the federal government to fight Punjab’s case in the Supreme Court.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2011.