‘Illegal’ LCs, forex market speculation: MoF set to share list of banks with SIFC today

ISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry is all set to share the list of banks involved in illegal business relating to LCs and speculation in the foreign currency market with Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) on Thursday (Dec 7), well-informed sources told Business Recorder.

Secretary Finance and Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will brief the Council on expenditure sharing barring inclusion of provincial development projects in federal PSDP projects, recommendations on co-financing of BISP, agriculture tubewells, HEC expenditure by provinces, and implementation update on arrears of Rs 45.6 billion on account of agriculture tubewells subsidy (Balochistan).

MoF to share green bonds, debt swaps plan with SIFC today

Finance Ministry and SBP will also brief SIFC on curbing dollar volatility, update on removal of impediments in progress on the following items: (i) settlements in PKR for imports and exports as per SBP manual; (ii) settlement in RMB; (iii) settlements through Asian Clearing Union (ACU); (iv) cash over counter facility; (v) transit through Iran/Afghanistan and issues of banking clearance; (vi) banking transaction to be monitored and discourage hoarding of USD; (v) operationalisation of barter trade mechanism; (vi) recommendation to reduce rising circular debt in power sector while taking account of the conditionalities of IMF; (vi) update on negotiation process for resolution of pending issues with M/s Etisalat; (vii) digital payment solutions, action plans on launching PayPal and Stripe to support foreign currency remittances; and (viii) progress update on MoUs/agreements with United Arab Emirates.

Chairman FBR will brief the SIFC on FBR reforms, firmed up agenda, targets and roadmap, FBR to include the following milestones while working on reforms: additional 1.5 million new tax payers except nil taxpayers, increase in number of taxpayers earning above Rs 5 million from Rs 100,000 to Rs 150,000, 12,000 new retailers to be linked with PoS system, Rs 100 billion increase in revenues from sugar, tobacco, cement, fertilizer, beverages and POL sectors, widening of tax base through data integration with NADRA and customs reforms including number of days to clear percentage scanned and automated.

Ministry of Industries and Production will brief SIFC on PSM land, mobile manufacturing, automobile re-export, roadmap with timelines for approval of an effective policy for local deletion of mobile phones, issuance of licence to Motors Premier Ltd (Volkswagen) issuance of NOC to Lucky Cement & Flying Cement and Sinotech Solar, etc.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023