ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance has postponed the approval of Corporate Restructuring Companies (CRC) legislation for better management of the non-performing loans (NPLs) and revival of sick units following insistence by the members for detailed deliberation.

A meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance presided over by Faiz Ullah had taken up the proposed legislation, on Tuesday, for approval but had to eventually postpone because members sought threadbare discussion.

The meeting was short of quorum after opposition members left the meeting to attend political activities of their parties in connection with the Senate election.

Surprisingly, not a single member of the ruling party turned up in the meeting.

The secretary finance told the meeting that the stakeholders and the industry would equally benefit from the CRC Amendment Bill, 2020, with better management of NPL.

The proposed legislation is beneficial for the industry as well as stakeholders as it would provide financial support for the revival of sick units.

The deputy governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) told the committee that the company proposed in the legislation would deal with NPL, which were over Rs800 billion.

He further stated that no one was ready to revive the sick units and the government intention in the law was to resuscitate them.

He said that the government believes that the proposed legislation would be very helpful for the sick units after the approval.

Aisha Ghaus Pasha said, of course, “this is a very good concept but the committee required some details before the legislation is passed.”

She added that the members of the committee needed some more details for their satisfaction.

Hina Rabbani Khar said that one company would provide loans for the revival of the sick units, and inquired whether there would be a guarantee that the sick units would be revived.

Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh said that this is an important bill for the companies and there is a need to invite stakeholders, and suggested that there should be consultation with the bank association and the business community.

We are not opposing this legislation but want to improve it, Shaikh added.

Although, the chairman of the committee emphasized the need for early approval of the law on the ground that alone in Faisalabad worth Rs2.5 billion industries have become non-operational, the committee members insistence for detailed discussion of the proposed bill left him with no option but to defer the approval for the next meeting.

A statement issued by the National Assembly Standing Committee Secretariat read that the committee unanimously endorsed the need of the bill; however, requested the SBP, for detailed presentation in this regard before the enactment of such kind of legislation and decided that next meeting on this bill will be held on 4th March, 2021.

Also, the committee deferred the remaining agenda due to paucity of time.

The meeting was attended by Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Ali Pervaiz, Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Dr Nafisa Shah, and Hina Rabbani Khar.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021