OUR CORRESPONDENT
KARACHI
Governor State Bank of Pakistan Reza Baqir has said that SBP is constantly working with stakeholders and taking appropriate measures to bring financial relief and provide pragmatic support to the industries in order to maintain financial solvency and retention of the workforce especially in these trying times. “SBP is constantly engaged with bankers to ensure that the initiatives undertaken by SBP are implemented on fast track basis in order to achieve the objectives”, he added while speaking at a meeting with Directors of Employers Federation of Pakistan through a 75- minute video conference to discuss the SBP Refinance Scheme for Payment of Wages and Salaries to the Workers and Employees of Business Concerns. Dr. Baqir, who was assisted by Deputy Governor Jameel Ahmed and Executive Directors Syed Samar Hasnain and Dr. Inayat Hussain, explained that suitable safeguards have been incorporated in the Scheme to avoid its misuse. These include direct deposit of wages and salaries into worker’s accounts, payment through employers to workers if the employers provide complete information to the lending banks and priority to those employers whose payroll amount is up to Rs200 million for three months. Moreover, the active taxpayers w ould get a discount of 1% in the markup rates as an incentive. Dr. Baqir also shared that SBP has taken into account the concerns of the SMEs while structuring the Scheme.
