DUSHANBE, March 30, 2009, Asia-Plus — An official with Orienbonk, one of Tajikistan’s largest commercial banks, has confirmed that no somoni of the government cotton credit has been repaid by the bank so far.
As it had been reported earlier, Narzullo Habibuloyev, the head of the budget department within the Ministry of Finance (MoF), told Asia-Plus on Monday that banks have repaid only little more than 40 million somoni of the government cotton loan so far
In 2008, the government gave a 140 million somoni credit to Agroinvestbonk, Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank), Orienbonk, Tajik Sodirot Bonk (TSB) and TajPromBank to provide loans to cotton farmers and only 28.6 percent of that has been repaid to this date. Habibuloyev said noting those 40 million somoni had been repaid by four banks, while no somoni had been repaid by Orienbonk so far.
The Orienbonk official said in an interview with Asia-Plus on March 30 that the bank is unable to repay the government loan at this time. According to him, if debt repayments for Tajik cotton farmers are extended they will be able to repay some 40-50% of the government cotton credit.
In 2008, the government provided the loan to five banks at 12 annual interest. Of this amount, Orienbonk received 35 million somoni and the government credit should be paid off by April 1.
