DUSHANBE, April 7, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Ministry of Finance (MoF) intends to apply to the Government within the next few days with proposal to restructure the banks’ government credit debts, Temour Afghonov, the head of the MoF state debt and financial assets department, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, the proposal is connected with request of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) and a number of other banks for extending the term of the government credit repayments.
We will recall that the term of repayment of the government credit expired on April 1. In 2008, the government gave a 140 million somoni credit to farmers through six banks – Agroinvestbonk, Orienbonk, Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank), Tojik Sodirot Bonk (TSB), Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston (Tajikistan Development Bank or TDB), and TajPromBank. The government credit was provided to the banks at 12 percent annual interest
“Taking into consideration the impact of the global financial crisis on the country’s cotton sector, the ministry intends to ask the president to set up a special commission to examine financial state of each of debtor banks separately for restructuring the government credit debts,” Afghonov said.
He noted that the banks had repaid only 33 percent (45.9 million somoni) of the principal and 32 percent (4.8 million somoni) of the loan interest by April 6.
“Thus, Amonatbonk that received 40 million somoni has repaid 19.4 million of the principal and 1.2 million somoni of the loan interest, Agroinvestbonk (50 million somoni) – 18.7 million and 2.8 million somoni respectively, TSB (5 million somoni) – 2.5 million and 390,000 somoni, TDB (5 million somoni) – 3.3 million and 428,000 somoni, and TajPromBank that received 5 million somoni has still repaid only 2.1 million somoni of the principal,” said the MoF official said. “The ministry has not yet received funds from Orienbonk, to which the government gave 35 million somoni.”
This year, the government intends to give 180 million somoni to cotton farmers through banks, he added. “The ministry has already signed loan agreements with Orienbonk, TSB and TajPromBank for a total amount of 70 million somoni and 54 million somoni of this amount will be allocated in the near future” said Afghonov. “The main difference of these agreements of the last year’s contracts is that banks may provide government funds in loans to cotton farmers as they think best.”
