Punjab small industries board approves Rs50,000 daily allowance
The board also cut security charges for small industrial estate allottees by up to 75 percent and amended an interest-free artisan loan scheme.
The Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) board approved a daily allowance of up to Rs50,000 for its private members on assigned duty on Friday, ARY News reported.
The meeting was chaired by Provincial Minister for Industries and Commerce Chaudhry Shafay Hussain at PSIC House in Lahore, where PSIC Managing Director Mubin Ilahi briefed members on a 15-point agenda.
The board approved revised security charges for allottees of PSIC's small industrial estates and cut them by up to 75 percent.
It also approved an amendment to the interest-free loan scheme for Punjab's artisans, under which 5 percent of the quota will be reserved for transgender persons and people with disabilities.
Members approved the Punjab Small Industries Sale and Disposal of Movable Property Rules 2026, which will require final approval from the Punjab cabinet.
The board also approved an auction schedule and reserve prices for surplus plots in the estates, hiring an online marketing consultancy for handicrafts, and upgrading the Metal Craft Artisan Village in Kot Abdul Malik.
It further approved hiring a Supreme Court advocate as a legal expert for the board and reviewed a lease model for the Qaidabad estate and a proposed new 300-acre estate in Kot Pindi Das.
Chaudhry Shafay Hussain said that 100 percent colonization of industrial estates is the Punjab government's top priority and that development work is moving forward in the province's 23 small industrial estates.
He said new estates are being built on industrialists' demand and an industrial park is being set up in Gujranwala.
The minister said loans of up to Rs30 million are being offered interest-free in the second phase of the Chief Minister's Asan Karobar Finance Scheme, while up to Rs5 billion in easy loans and Rs100 million in interest-free loans are available under the industrial development programme.
He also said Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has approved four agro-processing parks, and that PSIC must work with relevant departments to identify land for them.
Mubin Ilahi said the Punjab Small Industries Corporation is the first institution to have repaid a loan to the government, which he attributed to sound financial management.
