April 24, 2019
 
11th meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs of the National Assembly was held today i.e 24th April, 2019, in Committee Room of Federal Board of Revenue, FBR House, Islamabad, under the chairmanship of Mr. Faiz Ullah, MNA.
 
2. The Committee approved the minutes of previous meetings of the Committee held on 15th and 16th April, 2019.
 
3. The Committee considered “The Microfinance Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (moved by Ms. Sajida Begum)”. The Executive Director, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) informed the Committee that necessary measures have been taken by the SBP for addressing the salient features of said Bill. The Honorable Mover withdraw the subject Bill.
 
4. An in-camera Session of the Committee was held on Financial Action Task Force  (FATF). The Committee was briefed by the Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Executive Officers SBP, Commissioner SECP and representatives of foreign affairs and NACTA.
 
5. While discussing the work plan assigned by the Special Committee on Agriculture products for uplifting the agriculture development. The Committee was briefed by the Chairman, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC). He said that PARC has already proposed three Research and Development projects in the budget of next financial year 2019-20 in this regard.  The Additional Secretary, Ministry of National Food Security & Research apprised the Committee that Asian Development Bank (ADB) conducted a knowledge creation exercise for the purpose of report publication in 2018 for “Punjab Basmati Rice Value Chain Analysis” and currently, ADB was working on “Punjab Sustained Agriculture Growth through Enhanced Agriculture Management” by means of a Technical Assistance (TA), the TA would result in a loan in the coming years amounting to USD 100 million. He further stated that World Bank was funding on various agriculture projects in Punjab, Sindh and KPK.
 
6. The Committee recommended to Ministry of National Food Security & Research and PARC for preparing a comprehensive presentation alongwith their recommendations for improvement of research and development in agriculture sector. The Committee further recommended to Ministry of National Food Security & Research that working papers should be prepared in line with the given agenda by the Special Committee on Agriculture Products.
 
7. The Committee expressed its grave concern on the crop insurance policy of ZTBL, Syed Naveed Qamar, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Commerce assured the Committee that he will take up said matter in the Standing Committee on Commerce for further deliberations and report on the matter would be presented to this Committee. 
 
8. The Committee deferred remaining agenda pertaining to tariff reforms with regard to import in Pakistan due to short of time.
 
9. The meeting was attended by MNAs Mr. Raza Nasrullah, Mr. Jamil Ahmed Khan, Mr. Faheem Khan, Mr. Aftab Hussain Siddique, Mr. Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Mr. Ali Pervaiz, Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Syed Naveed Qamar, Hina Rabbani Khar and Ms. Sajida Begum (Mover) besides the senior officers of Ministry of Finance, Revenue & Economic Affairs, Ministry of National Food Security & Research, FBR, SBP, SECP, ZTBL, NARC and National Tariff Commission.