The State Bank of Pakistan has enhanced the amount of subsidized financing to establish hospitals in the country by 100 percent.
Commercial banks may provide financing of up to Rs. 1 billion to the hospital instead of the previous limit of Rs. 500 million.
The scheme for setting up new hospitals will remain valid up till June 30, 2021.
The State Bank has been providing subsidized financing for hospitals in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the peak of coronavirus in the country, the government found it difficult to deal with a large number of infections while private hospitals were also not equipped properly to deal with thousands of Covid-19 patients in all the provinces.
There is a need to set up separate units in hospitals for Covid-19 patients whereas equipment such as ventilators is expensive to install at the required level at private hospitals.
Various private hospitals availed this scheme which enhanced its size to over Rs. 6 billion.
Earlier, the total size of the scheme was set at Rs. 5 billion with a maximum financing limit per hospital of Rs. 200 million. This limit has been now increased to Rs. 1 billion per hospital. The financing rate of the scheme is 3 percent per annum for five years.
