Minister of State for Finance and Economic Affairs Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan here on Friday informed the National Assembly that 5.55 growth has been witnessed in Large Scale Manufacture (LSM) during July to December 2018.

Responding to question during the question hour he said, “Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) which has a share of 80 percent in manufacturing sector registered a healthy broad based growth of 5.68 percent in 2016-17. The same performance continued in current fiscal year. During July- December 2018, LSM recorded a growth of 5.55 percent as compared to 4.02 percent during the same period last year.”

He said that the growth is increasing due to continuous supply of power. To stimulate the growth of the sector, he said the government has undertaken broad based power sector reforms under the framework of the National Power Policy 2013.

He said that Long Term Finance Facility (LTFF) markup rates was reduced from 11.4 percent to 6.0 percent and Export Re-finance Facility (ERF) rates reduced from 8.4 percent to 3.0 percent.

Responding to another question he said that 1400 National Bank Branches are operating throughout the country. On the demand of FATA members, he said “the government will plan to open branches in the FATA soon after the identification of locations by the members.”

About the issue of missing of containers unearthed in past, he said that the government had devised a comprehensive policy to keep check the movement of containers. Tracker and scanning system had been installed at all the containers and the owners of the containers have been also bound to submit guarantee bonds with the government, he maintained.

He said that as many as 48 additional border posts have been constructed on Pak-Afghan border to curb smuggling.

The minister said that volume of smuggling had witnessed down trend in the country due to steps taken by the government.