KULOB, January 30, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- As of January 1, 2010, clients of banks in Khatlon’s Kulob zone have had loans for 97 million somoni, with 3 to 5 percent of them being overdue loans, heads of branches of six large banks in the Kulob zone told reporters at a news conference in Kulob on January 29.

According to them, imperfect pledging system of the country impedes an opportune repayment of loans.

Abdukarim Nematov, head of the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob, in particular noted, that the country’s law on pledge was in contrary to the country’s civil code.

“Under the law on pledge, if client fails to repay debt, the object of pledge passes into the ownership of creditor, while under the civil code, this issue is solved only through economic court,” Nematov said, adding that in the last case, the procedure lasts for months and all payments, including penalty measures, are suspended until the issue is solved.

Because of these delays, banks in the area have not yet been able to take back more than 12 million (of them some 7 million somoni are the government credit) of loans provided to local cotton farmers in 2008, the bankers noted.