Furthermore, our banking industry shall also play an effective role when it comes to financial intermediation. In particular, beyond the encouraging growth in private sector credit numbers, banks are now being asked to extend their services to the underserved, unbanked and disadvantaged segments as well.
I appreciate that the government has offered a lower tax rate of 20 percent to the banks on their income derived from incremental financing to the SME, Agriculture, and low cost housing borrowers (via the Finance Supplementary [Second Amendment] Act, 2019).