LAHORE:The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) organised a session on ‘Punjab Rozgar Scheme’, in collaboration with the Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC), here on Wednesday.
LCCI President Kashif Anwar, Senior Vice President Chaudhry Zafar Mahmood, Vice President Adnan Khalid Butt, Project Director of Punjab Rozgar Scheme Shahzeb Hassan Kirmani and experts from different sectors spoke at the session.
Project Director Shahzeb Kirmani said that Punjab Rozgar Scheme was a flagship initiative of the Punjab government, designed with a total cost of Rs. 30 billion, to provide subsidised credit facilities to the macro, small and medium (MSME) startups and existing business, in collaboration with commercial banks. The provincial government would provide markup support and risk coverage to minimise the cost of commercial loans for the MSMEs, and to overcome pandemic effect of COVID-19 on existing business. He said that Punjab Rozgar Scheme had been designed with special focus on generating employment opportunities for the youth by creating economic activities. University graduates with entrepreneurial skills and diploma/certificate holders of technical/vocational training institutes, as well as existing businesses hit by COVID-19 would be considered.
LCCI President Kashif Anwar said that Punjab Rozgar Scheme launched by the Punjab government would support the new startups and also mitigate the harmful impacts caused by COVID-19 on existing businesses. It was good to know that The Bank of Punjab had collaborated with Punjab Small Industries Corporation for the useful initiative of the government.
He said that since these loans, which ranged from Rs 100,000 to Rs 1 million under Clean Loan Category and from Rs.1 million to Rs.10 million under Secured Loan Category, were being given at low mark-up rate of four to five per cent, there was a tremendous opportunity for macro, small and medium enterprises to enhance their access to credit. He said that the Lahore chamber appreciated that equity ratio for women, transgender and disabled persons was 90:10 as compared to 80:20 for men. This step would certainly facilitate the less privileged segments of the society.
Kashif Anwar was of the view that better access to finance would greatly assist the MSMEs in getting the required access to new technology and enhance their export competitiveness with the help of loans taken under Punjab Rozgar Scheme.
LCCI Senior Vice President Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal and Vice President Adnan Khalid Butt hoped that process of applying for this scheme would be simple and the documentary requirements should not be lengthy and cumbersome. It was very important that certain details should be shared with private sector so that they might make their members aware of credit facilities offered through these schemes.