Punjab Minister for Industries and Commerce Chaudhry Shafay Hussain disclosed a Rs300 billion financing programme this year, featuring interest-free loans of up to Rs100 million.
He revealed the plan while presiding over a Board of Directors meeting of the Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) at PSIC House, Davis Road, Lahore. The board, which considered a single agenda item, adopted several measures to boost industrial and commercial activity across the province.
According to the scheme, loans ranging from Rs100 million to Rs1 billion will bear a 3 percent mark-up, and loans from Rs1 billion to Rs5 billion will carry a 5 percent mark-up. Hussain noted that interest-free loans are already being disbursed under the Chief Minister's Asaan Karobar Finance Scheme.
The board also gave the green light to file an appeal in the Federal Constitutional Court challenging a Lahore High Court division bench decision on employee pensions, which Hussain said would be contested at the federal level.
Additionally, the minister instructed the acceleration of infrastructure improvements in 24 small industrial estates throughout Punjab.
The meeting was informed that the first small industrial estate has been set up in Mandi Bahauddin, where plot allocation will be conducted entirely online and 20 percent of the plots are reserved for overseas Pakistanis.
