By Muhammad Soban

Islamabad, Aug 15, 2022, (INP-WealthPK): The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced the formation of a committee and the appointment of a liaison officer for timely resolution of the issues of the business community, WealthPK reports.

The announcement was made after a meeting between SBP Acting Governor Dr. Murtaza Syed and a delegation of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI).

Besides Dr. Murtaza Syed, deputy governors of SBP Dr. Inayat Hussain and Sima Kamil also met with the FPCCI representatives to discuss current economic challenges and measures taken by the government and central bank of the country to resolve these issues.

The SBP top brass assured the representatives of the business community that the central bank would provide full support to them to address their concerns. The SBP acting governor lauded FPCCI for its endurance in the face of international and domestic challenges.

According to the SBP acting governor, the board of the International Monetary Fund will meet in the third week of the current month after vacations to approve the loan for Pakistan. He acknowledged the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar. However, he hoped that the rupee would gain value in the coming two or three months. He invited the business community to give suggestions about the current economic situation, foreign exchange and other relevant matters.

Dr. Murtaza Syed said that the SBP would look into the technical requirements for making easy the import of tractor parts and other agricultural machinery.

FPCCI President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh urged the SBP acting governor to use the tools available to the central bank to curb speculative dollar trading. He said that shortage of industrial raw materials, as well as speculative trading and unavailability of the dollar, affected importers, manufacturers and industrialists.

According to Irfan, commercial banks have been offering letters of credit (LoC) to importers at a rate higher than the inter-bank rate over the past several weeks. He urged the SBP authorities to step in to resolve the issue.

A senior official of the SBP said that the central bank was providing support to businessmen, particularly exporters. During the last four years, the SBP has increased its short-term export refinance limit from Rs432 billion to Rs857 billion rupees, registering a surge of almost 100 percent. SBP’s outstanding stock of Long-Term Fixed-Rate Financing (LTFF) for exporters surged by 57 percent during the last three years and reached Rs329 billion from Rs209 billion.

The FPCCI acknowledged that Temporary Economic Refinance Facility (TERF) massively helped to stimulate investment and boost the economy in the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Most of the business entities availed the facility at a rate far below the maximum cap of five percent. The overwhelming success of TERF indicated that it was successful in filling the gap for long-term investment in the country. An amount of Rs436 billion has been approved under the facility for 628 businesses, according to documents available with WealthPK.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk