Two subsidised loan schemes put on hold
The Punjab government launched the Ashiana housing project for low income homeless people in January and set up the PLDC to implement it. The plan was to offer subsidised housing to individuals with monthly incomes of less than Rs20,000.
The PML-N led coalition government has temporarily suspended two major subsidised loan schemes introduced by the previous PTI administration for lowcost houses and youth entrepreneurship.
“It is advised that government of Pakistan is considering reviewing/ revising features of ‘Government Markup Subsidy (G-MSS) for Housing Finance’ commonly known as Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar (MPMG) scheme in light of recent developments in macroeconomic scenario.
“Accordingly, (commercial) banks, development finance institutions (DFIs) and microfinance banks (MFBs) are advised to put further disbursements under MPMG on hold from July 1, 2022 till August 31, 2022,” the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a notification on Thursday.
“However, in those cases where partial disbursements have already been made till June 30, 2022, banks/ DFIs/ MFBs may release remaining disbursement under MPMG.” The PTI government introduced the subsidised loans under the MPMG scheme in 2020.
Banks have so far disbursed Rs85 billion.
Besides, they have approved applications worth Rs212 billion against the demand for Rs474 billion under the scheme.
The government has also temporarily suspended the Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (PMKJ-YES).
Another notification of the central bank said “it is advised that government of Pakistan is considering reviewing/ revising features of subject (PMKJYES) scheme in light of recent developments in the macroeconomic scenario.”
“Accordingly, banks participating as executing agencies under PMKJYES are advised to put on hold fresh disbursement from July 1, 2022 to July 15, 2022,” the SBP said.