Karachi: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) recently announced further modifications to its Refinance Facility (RFCC) for combatting COVID-19 — with the central bank now allowing hospitals and medical centres to avail financing against their existing equipment to purchase refurbished tools for deployment in the special facilities developed exclusively to deal with the ongoing pandemic, a news source reported.
The central bank had announced the facility on March 17, and it was meant to assist hospitals in meeting their financial needs. However, since the announcement, the central bank has received a number of suggestions to improve the facility, and these new measures have been announced based on those suggestions.
In addition to improving the financing requirement, the bank
has also enhanced the minimum coverage of civil works for setting up an
isolation facility from of 60% to up to 100%. At the same time, the State Bank
has also issued instructions to the banks to ensure that financing under the
facility is utilised for its intended purposes.
