Lukashenko on lending in agro-industrial complex
All loans taken in the agro-industrial complex must be returned – as stated today by the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, during a major conference call on the issues of the harvesting campaign
The Head of State asked Finance Minister Yuri Seliverstov how lending is provided for the purchase of grain.
The head of the Belarusian financial department reported that funds for the purchase of Russian grain were allocated under Government guarantees. The second point concerns lending for grain purchases under state orders inside the country. Yuri Seliverstov drew attention to the fact that there are farms that, because of their debt load, cannot take additional loans, “Regions find an operator who can take out a loan, but even in this case, there are difficulties in the Vitebsk Region, which are settled through the provision of guarantees by local authorities. If the case is quite difficult, when even guarantees do not help, then this is the issue of bonds of local budgets – direct financing. This is the most extreme case. Unfortunately, there are such cases ... but no one is left without money.”
The President asked whether everyone is paying off the loans taken earlier, and stressed, “If you took a debt, it must be returned on time. Only then can you come and ask for more money.”
