The federal cabinet has approved draft amendment Bill "Banks (Nationalization) Act (BNA) 2018" that is aimed at removing the names of three erstwhile financial institutions from BNA 1974 on the recommendations of Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) headed by Minister for Law and Justice.
According to official documents, the CCLC was informed on April 4 last that the names of National Investment Trust limited (NITL), Small Business Finance Corporation (SBFC) and Regional Development Finance Corporation (RDFC) were included in section 11-A, clauses (iii), (v) and (vi) of the Banks (Nationalization) Act, (BNA) 1974 respectively which pertained to the applicability of certain provisions regarding management of banks to certain financial institutions.
The committee was apprised that after amendments in the Banking Companies Ordinance 1962 and the Companies Ordinance 1984 (new Companies Act, 2017), public sector companies/non-banking financial institutions including NITL had been brought under the regulatory supervision of SECP instead of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). Therefore, BNA 1974 was not applicable to National Investment Trust Limited, Small Business Finance Corporation and Regional Development Finance Corporation. Similarly, the names of SBFC and RDFC were also required to be deleted from section 11-A clauses (v) and (vi) as these organisations were merged into a new institution namely SME Bank Limited.
The draft amendment bill titled "Banks (Nationalization) (Amendment) Act, 2018" for deletion of the names of NITL, SBFC and RDFC from the purview of section 11-A of BNA 1974, had been drafted and vetted by the Law and Justice Division.
In terms of rule (16(1)(a) read with rule 27 of the Rules of Business, 1973, the summary was submitted for approval of the CCLC for draft amendment Bill titled "Banks( Nationalization ( amendment) Act, 2018" which recommended the cabinet to approve the proposal subject to approval by the Prime Minister in his capacity as Minister Incharge of Finance Division.
The committee had also directed Finance Division to attach comparative statement of the existing and proposed provisions with the summary for consideration of the cabinet. The decisions of CCLC were submitted to the federal cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi that ratified the CCLC's April 4th decision.