DUSHANBE, December 7, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- The government has not yet adopted any decision on the issue of repayment of a government credit provided to cotton producing farms last year through a number of banks, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

We will recall that in January 2008, the government gave a 140 million somoni credit to cotton farmers through Amonatbonk (40 million somoni), Agroinvestbonk (50 million somoni), Orienbonk (35 million somoni), Tojik Sodirot Bonk (5 million somoni), Tajikistan Development Bank (5 million somoni), and Tajprombank (5 million somoni).  The loans were supposed to be paid off by April 1, 2009.

In March this year, Agroinvestbonk appealed to the government, asking to postpone debt repayments for cotton farmers until the end of the year.  Agroinvestbonk justified its request for postponement of debt repayments by saying that the fall in the international price of cotton and in demand for the product has hurt many Tajik farmers.  The government agreed to extend the debt repayment term until November 1, 2009, while banks now ask the government to postpone debt repayments until July 1, 2010.

The banks have repaid only some 68 percent (95.14 million) of the government credit by December 1, the source said.  According to him, only Tojik Sodirot Bonk (TSB) and Tajikistan Development Bank (TDB) have paid off their debts by November 1, 2009.

The source added that the ministry was currently preparing a letter to government with solicitation to solve the last year’s credit repayment issue as soon as possible.  “We cannot possibly restructure these debts because next year, the government will give another credit to farming units and we need funds for this,” he said.