KULOB, September 18, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Only 62.92 percent of a 27,482,288 government credit provided to cotton farmers in Khatlon’s Kulob zone last year has been repaid by September 16, Abdurakim Nematov, the head of the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to him, the best situation regarding debt repayments has been reported in branches of Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank) in the area. “95.31 percent of the government credit provided through this bank has already been repaid,” Nematov said.

Meanwhile, the most serious situation has been reported in the branch of Tajikprombank (Joint-stock Commercial Industrial Bank for Reconstruction and Development) in Kulob.  “A 3.5 million somoni government credit was provided  to local cotton farmers through this bank last year; of this amount, 2.5 million somoni were provided to cotton-growing farms in the Hamadoni district and the Hamadoni farmers have repaid only 8.54 percent of the credit to this date,” the head of NBT’s branch said.

This year, banks have provided 22,439,178 somoni in loans, including a 20,963,528 somoni government credit, to cotton farmers in the Kulob zone.

We will recall that the government last year gave a 140 million somoni credit to farmers through a number of banks and the farmers loans were supposed to be repaid by April 1, 2009.  However, taking into consideration that the fall in the international price of cotton has hurt many farmers, the government extended the loan repayment period until November 1, 2009.