UNISAME APPRECIATES TIMELY POSITIVE STEPS OF SBP

The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) appreciated the timely positive steps of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and said it will resolve the financial crunch of SMEs, the commercial and the corporate sector as well to a very large extent in a conference call meeting on the social media on the 11th April 2020.
Imran Bilal convener UNISAME finance committee said it is a very benificial scheme for all borrowers.
He said now industry should play positive role to boost the economy and run the wheel of economy and act as partners to government.
SBP and government have already taken very bold steps to support the industry in terms of various relief packages like tax rebates, low cost refinance schemes, salaries and wages schemes, rescheduling of loans, relief in utilities cost relaxation /reduction in utilities tariff for industry and end users in good time he stated thankfully.
UNISAME council expressed thanks to the government and SBP who have played their active and positive roll to support individuals and SME sector in these crucial times.
They appreciated the remarkable relief package for construction sector by recognizing it as industry and giving it the support to encompass and promote several connected industries.
They said exporters are getting benefits of dollar appreciation on their export proceeds and on the other side importers are hit by rupee depreciation in this regard SBP should take some more steps to strengthen the rupee promptly.
President UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver said smart lockdown system needs to be followed by giving some relaxation to different sector industries like food processing and pharmaceutical manufacturers where computerised machinery is used and distanced monitoring is done by supervisors and one or two assistants.
Thaver urged Hammad Azhar federal minister industries to announce the SME policy to include more SMEs in the economy. The SME sector is contributing 30% towards GDP, and employs more than 80pc of non-agriculture workforce and generates 25% of export earnings. The banks are not doing justice to SMEs by offering them less than 7pc of their total fresh lending.
The total number of SMEs are approximately 6 million but only a fraction of them qualify for bank loans.The CPEC is now gathering pace and the sector needs support for technology transfer and collaborations. It is high time the policy makers work in this direction.
UNISAME council members said the big industrialist are hinting at declaring economic emergency which is wrong they need to understand that our economic stamina does not have the capacity to deliver without replenishing it regularly .
At this point of time the government must sensibly & intelligently push economic activities by resorting to smart and not complete lockdown.
Asif Ali Khan UNISAME council member said the SBP must nominate more banks for disbursement of Ahsas funds to the beneficiaries and he urged very low mark up loans for small shop keepers.
UNISAME council urged the philanthropist, the multinationals and the big corporations to enhance their charities and look after the under privileged.
UNISAME experts have urged all segments of the society to observe austerity and save food, water and energy to overcome the challenging times.
Social distancing and preventive methods were highlighted to overcome the Coronavirus dangers.

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