NA Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs meets

ISLAMABAD: 14th meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs of the National Assembly was held on Thursday here at Parliament House, under the chairmanship of Mr Faiz Ullah, MNA.

While considering the implementation status of the previous recommendations made by the Committee to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Director General, FBR informed the Committee that FBR has forwarded the recommendations to Ministry of Finance with the request to abolish the regulatory duty on import of tyres in the upcoming Federal Budget, FY 2019-20.

The Committee emphasized that the recommendations of the Committee should be considered on priority basis, because said recommendations were made after due deliberations with the stakeholders and Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) and Chambers of Commerce & Industry (CCI).

The Committee expressed its displeasure on the non-compliance of the recommendations pertaining to FPCCI and CCI, which were made by the Committee in its meeting held on 15th & 16th April, 2019.

The Committee deferred agenda pertaining to the Foreign Exchange Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on the request of the Ministry of Finance and Governor, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

While considering the Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Committee members have expressed their concerns on the late submission of brief/comparative statement by the Ministry of Finance.

The Committee once again directed to Ministry of Finance that Advisor may be requested to attend the meeting for briefing on the subject Bill including total public debt trends in past 10 years & current status and foreign & domestic debt and trends for the future.

The Committee decided that said Bill will be discussed in the next meeting of the Committee, which will be held on 21st May, 2019.

The Committee discussed the agenda with regard to total public debt trends in past 10 years & current status and foreign & domestic debt and trends for the future.

The Members have expressed their apprehensions about the increase in public debt during last 8 months, however, Special Secretary, Ministry of Finance informed that Rs. 1400 billion were paid against interest of the earlier borrowing.

The Committee has directed the Ministry of Finance to prepare a comprehensive briefing in this regard till the next meeting of the Committee.

Moulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, MNA/Mover once again briefed the Committee about the salient features of the Eradication of Riba Bill, 2019. Mr. Samar Hasnain, Director, SBP presented the comparative measures/analysis of the other Islamic countries on Eradication of Riba.

The Committee members were of the view that Islamic Banking System will gradually flourish in the country. After deliberations the Committee decided with the consent of the Mover (Moulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, MNA) that that said Bill may be deferred.

The Committee discussed the agenda about the NBP Bangladesh scam and actions taken by the Bank against the employees of the Bank, involved in said scam.

Director, NBP briefed the Committee about the measures taken by the institutional discipline wing, HR management group after receipt of KPMG report.

He said that internal actions, legal actions by the external agencies and actions against Bangladesh based local employees were initiated by the Bank.

The Additional Director, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) informed the Committee about the current status of the criminal proceedings against accused of said scam.

Director, NBP on Bangladesh scam informed that there were some issues in the recovery process due to the demand of borrowers for right off their some portion of loans. The Committee recommended to NBP that Credit Committee and Board of NBP may be asked to prepare their recommendations for recovery of loans in Bangladesh scam.

The Committee deferred its remaining agenda due to short of time. The meeting was attended by MNAs Mr. Raza Nasrullah, Makhdoom Syed, Sami-ul-Hassan Gillani, Makhdoomzada Syed Basit Ahmed Sultan, Sardar Nasrullah Khan Dreshak, Mr. Aftab Hussain Siddique, Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, Mr. Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary, Mr. Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Mr. Ali Pervaiz, Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Ms. Nafisa Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar and Moulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, besides the senior officers of Ministry of Finance, FBR, SBP, NBP, NAB, SECP and Ministry of Law & Justice.