The disbursement of agricultural loans by the banks increased by 17 percent, year-on-year (YoY), to Rs 231.04 billion during the first nine months of current fiscal year. In absolute terms, the central bank on Monday reported that the farm loan disbursement grew by over Rs 33.7 billion in July-MarchFY2013 compared to Rs 197.3 billion in the corresponding period of last fiscal year. It said the overall credit disbursement by the five major commercial banks, including Allied Bank, Habib Bank, MCB Bank, National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank Limited stood at Rs 123.7 billion compared to Rs 107.6 billion disbursed in July-MarchFY2012. This depicts an increase of 14.9 percent, the bank said. Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL), the country’s largest specialized bank, disbursed a total of Rs 37.9 billion as against Rs 37.8 billion the bank disbursed last year. The Punjab Provincial Co-operative Bank Limited (PPCBL) disbursed Rs 5.4 billion against Rs 6 billion of FY12. The fourteen domestic private banks also loaned a combined amount of Rs 51.0 billion in the review period against Rs 37.3 billion disbursed during last year. Five Microfinance Banks including Khushhali Bank Ltd., NRSP Microfinance Bank Ltd., The First Microfinance Bank Ltd., Pak Oman Microfinance Bank Ltd. and Tameer Microfinance Bank Ltd. disbursed agri. loans amounting to Rs 12.9 billion during July‐March, FY 2013 as compared to 8.5 billion during the same period last year. It may be pointed out that the State Bank has provisionally set an indicative agricultural credit disbursement target of Rs 315 billion to banks for the current fiscal year.
