Approval put on hold

ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet Committee on Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) has put on hold approval of amendments in rules of different National Saving Schemes (NSSs) due to ambiguity in the proposal of Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS), sources in Finance Ministry told Business Recorder.

CDNS is an attached department of Finance Division. The National Savings Schemes (NSSs) play an important role in mobilization of domestic savings, budgetary support and management of inflationary pressures. Some of the NSSs also provide necessary social protection to the poor and vulnerable segments of society through higher interest rates against investment.

Currently, CDNS is managing ten different National Savings Schemes ranging from three month to 10-years tenors and cater for the secure investment according to the needs of small savers, youth, senior citizen, pensioners, widows and Shuhada’s families.

The core business of CDNS (software) has multiple automatic functions including crediting accrued profits of customers on the due date without their physical visit at National Savings Centres (NSCs). This application automatically calculates and credits the amount of profit on due date of accrual in the correlated saving accounts of the investors concerned. Therefore, to provide this electronic solution, the existing legal framework needs to be synchronized for which CDNS proposed amendments in Rule-5 of Regular Income Certificates (RICs)) Rules, 1993, Rule-10 of Bahbood Savings Certificate Rules (BSCs), 2003, Rule-9 of the Pensioner’s Benefit Account (PBA) Rules, 2003 and Rule-44A of Defence Savings Certificates (DSCs) Rules, 1966.

The sources said Ministry of Law and Justice has already vetted draft notification proposing amendments in the rules, subject to approval by the federal cabinet.

Finance Division proposed that the notifications proposing amendments in Rules 5 of Regular Income Certificate Rules, 1993, Rule-10 of Bahbood Savings Certificate Rules, 2003, Rule-9 of Pensioner’s Benefit Account Rules, 2003 and Rule-44A of Defence Saving Certificates Rules, 1996 may be approved by the CCLC, before it is submitted to the federal cabinet.

Members of CCLC observed that it was not clear from the proposal whether the organization wants to digitize its entire record/processing in place of present payment through coupon system or intends to continue both systems (manual and digitized) simultaneously.

It was also observed that the organization has also not provided information regarding digitization of their old record and whether it would be computerized or not. The members enquired that in case the organization intends to digitize its old record as well then what the timelines and benchmarks are set in this regard.

Members of the CCLC also observed that the proposal of the organization lacked clarity. It was, therefore, desired that the proposal may be resubmitted after rectifying the ambiguities pointed out by the CCLC.—MUSHTAQ GHUMMAN