Sindh govt seeks relief in loans mark-up

KARACHI - Sindh government has demanded of Islamabad to either waive off mark up or reduce it on loans obtained from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other international donors during the tenure of PML-Q government, a senior official of Sindh government told The Nation on Thursday.
The ADB, WB and other international donors had reduced the mark-up on loans obtained by federal government during General Musharraf’s tenure but this relief had not been passed on to the provinces, he said.
Syed Sardar Ahmed-Parliamentary leader of MQM in Sindh Assembly and minister without portfolio while talking to The Nation disclosed that federal government had been getting same mark up on foreign loans from provinces and relief was not provided them.
The Sindh government had approached then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and concerned officials of federal government for relief in mark up on foreign loans to provinces, Sardar Ahmed who was then finance minister of Sindh said and recalled that positive reply was not received from neither federal government nor from then PM.
Reiterating the demand he said present federal government must write off the interest rate on foreign loan and relief should be provided to provinces.
The official document of finance department showed that total debt liability was Rs126.178 billion in fiscal 07 while foreign debt on Sindh was amounting to Rs68.572 billion in said period.
Under foreign debt liabilities, the $677 million dollars debt of IDA, $443 million dollars of ADB, 9952 Japanese yen of Japan and 11 million pound sterling of UK were still to be paid by Sindh.
Out of total foreign debt, the 91.5 percent loans were borrowed from IDA (World Bank), official said.
The foreign debt liability of the Sindh was only Rs70 million in FY 1973-74 while increased to only Rs71.425 billion in 2005-06, official document said.
According to statistics of finance department, upward and downward fluctuations had been observed in foreign liability of Sindh during the period of 2001 to 2007.