ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance has decided to get a briefing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the overall economic situation.

A meeting of the Standing Committees chaired by its chairman Omar Ayub Khan decided to request the Finance Ministry to arrange a briefing of the IMF for the committee. The meeting also decided to form a sub-committee on tax reforms and expressed serious reservations on the “Credit Bureau Act”. The committee directed Finance Ministry and State Bank of Pakistan to take on board all the stakeholders and resubmit the proposed law to the committee within 45 days after October, 15 2014.

Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood told the committee that SBP has been performing the function of a regulator for the last 67 years very well and the Act presented to the committee was being made for the people and SBP was empowered to decide as to what should be the part of the Credit Bureau.

The meeting also constituted a committee on Rs 11 billion losses of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) during the Bangladesh operation. The Committee was informed by senior NBP officials that a forensic report of losses that occurred during the Bangladesh operation would be completed by mid of the next month for its submission to the committee.

The Committee decided to constitute a sub-Committee to probe the said scam in Bangladesh under the chairmanship of Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh with directives to submit its findings within 45 days from the date of its first meeting.

The Committee decided to defer the agenda on the working of Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and unanimously decided to call SECP and stakeholders in the next meeting of the Standing Committee.

The Committee decided to revise the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the already constituted sub-committee under the convenership of Daniyal Aziz, MNA, and added the name of Muhammad Pervaiz Malik, MNA, to its composition.

The meeting was attended by Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh, Daniyal Aziz, Muhammad Pervaiz Malik, Sheikh Fayyaz-ud-Din, Nasir Khan Khattak, Muhammad Ali Rashid and Abdul Rashid Godil besides senior officials from Ministry of Finance and Revenue, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, State Bank of Pakistan and National Bank of Pakistan.