PESHAWAR:The federal government has launched extraordinary grant provision project for promotion of investment and creation of employment opportunities in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector in the country.
The project ‘National Business Development Programme’ (NBDP) being implemented by SMEDA, Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P), across Pakistan including Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Talking to reporter, General Manager at SMEDA’s Regional Office, Peshawar Raja Hassanein Javed said that an entrepreneur could obtain a matching grant upto Rs 500,000 for purchase of raw material, office equipment such as computer, printer, Photocopy machine, scanner and quality testing instruments etc.
Those who are running the businesses of schools, beauty parlours, hospitals, clinics, furniture and stock materials are also eligible for the grant.
Under the programme, NBDP will provide 80 percent matching grant out of the total investment while the remaining 20 percent will be borne by the applicant.
Elaborating the scheme, the SMEDA official said that if an SME is required an amount of Rs 0.1 million for grant, then, the applicant will have to provide Rs 20,000 on his own, the remaining amount of Rs 80,000 will be provided by NBDP.
Similarly, in case of the maximum investment of Rs 625,000, the share of the applicant should be of Rs 125,000. The amount is provided in shape of grant and will not be recovered from the SME. The grant is provided on reimbursement basis.
The applications will be filed only online, for which SMEDA has given a specific link while information could also be obtained from SMEDA headquarters Lahore, Regional Offices, or by calling SME Business Helpline (042) 111-763-111.
The official said that procedure for obtaining this grant is very simple. The first conditionality is that the applicant should be a Pakistani National holding National Identity Card (NIC) of Pakistan.
The applicant should also have the National Tax Number (NTN) of the business and registration with the concerned government department and bank account in the name of the business.
The business of the applicant is required to be not more than one year old and remain operational for a minimum of period of four months during the year. The age of the business is determined from the date of application submission.
In order to promote smaller enterprises, businesses with investment up to Rs. 05 million are eligible to apply.
Livestock and agriculture farms are not eligible for the grant as such sectors already have similar grant facility.
However, the livestock farming sector of Baluchistan has been offered special concession as majority of the people of that province are dependent on this sector.
The government employees, employees of public sector organizations, non-governmental organizations, and non-profit organizations are not eligible for the grant.
The scheme has been introduced as per vision of the Prime Minister Imran Khan for promotion of business activities to strengthen national economy and generate employment opportunities.
The business community, particularly SME sector of the country is appreciating the scheme and terming it a catalyst for sustainable economic development of the country.
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