MoF asks SBP, FBR to provide SMEs’ data

ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry is in the process of gathering data of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from different sources to provide relief as part of the government’s economic relief package, according to a senior official of the ministry.

The government has announced approval of Rs100 billion as deferred payment of SME and agriculture sector loans and concessional loans, to ensure their input costs do not go up.

The official added that the SMEs were very important for the federal government but the problem with the SMEs was that their data was scattered at different places, some with the SBP and some with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). 

The ministry has requested the SBP and the FBR to provide data to provide relief to them as it was already getting late.

Dr Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation acknowledged on Sunday that the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) did not have the data of daily wagers because a large number of them were working in the informal sector. She added that the government was working with the Ministry of Industries on the daily wagers data. Dr Ashfaque Hassan Khan, former adviser to the Finance Ministry stated that the SMEs had been providing 70 to 80 percent employment to the non-agriculture labour and considerably contributing to the GDP of the country.  He added that the SMEs were also contributing to the export sector, so there was a need to provide them government support.

Dr Ashfaque further stated that the SMEs based in Sialkot, Hyderabad, and Gujranwala as well as Gujrat and other cities of the country were facing difficulties subsequent to the coronavirus and their closure would lead to more unemployment in the country. Dr Shahid Hassan, an economist stated that the government should use instruments of microfinance for poverty alleviation and job creation by encouraging the individual businesses along with the SMEs.