16TH meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs of the National Assembly was held today i.e 18th June, 2019, at 02:00 p.m., in Committee Room No.7, Parliament House, Islamabad, under the chairmanship of Mr. Asad Umar, MNA.

2.         The Committee expressed its apprehensions about the Amendments proposed by the Government in Section 16 of Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2019 regarding the powers assigned to the invest6igating officer or any other officers of the agencies mentioned in sub section (2) of section 24 of the AML Act, 2010. The Committee once again directed the Ministry of Finance to propose maintainable alternative suggestions in light of the queries made by the members of the Committee on the Amendments proposed by the Ministry.

3.         While considering the Foreign Exchange Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Senior Director, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) informed the Committee that foreign exchange policy and operations in Pakistan were governed under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), 1947, which empowers the SBP to regulate inflows and outflows the foreign exchange, however, the SBP does not have explicit powers under FERA, 1947 to issue any regulation/instruction relating to the inland movement of foreign currencies. The Committee recommended to SBP for preparing comprehensive presentation on the implementation procedure of the said bill  before enactment by the Parliament. Members were also of the concern that quantum of the foreign currency should be defined in the Bill.

4.         Moulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, MNA/Move, briefed the Committee about the salient features of the Eradication of Riba Bill, 2019,. Mr. Samar Hasnain, Director, SBP informed  the Committee that in order to Islamize the financial system of Pakistan, significant efforts were made during 1980s, Shariah Complaint Banking system was adopted by the SBP in 2002, wherein, both the Islamic and conventional banks were allowed to operate simultaneously in the country. He added that in terms of share, Islamic Banking industry have 13.5 percent and 15.5 percent share in country’s overall banking industry’s assets and deposits, respectively. After thread bear deliberation, the Committee recommended to SBP for providing comprehensive plan on the subject Bill in the light of the discussion made in the previous meetings of the Committee in this regard.

5.         The Committee considered the Islamabad Capital Territory Prohibition of Interest on Private Loans Bill, 2019, and decided that briefing on Microfinance Institutions will be arranged in this regard. The Committee discussed the matter regarding appointments of Governor, SBP and Chairman Federal Board of Revenue. Special Secretary, Ministry of Finance informed the Committee that all procedural requirements were completed for the appointment of Governor SBP.

6.         Chairman Federal Board of Revenue briefed the Committee on the salient futures of the Amnesty Scheme launched by the Government. He stated that assets declarations date of the said scheme will not be extended from 30th June, 2019.

7.         An In-camera session of the meeting was held to discuss the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff level agreement and current status of the Financial Action Task Force.

8.         The meeting was attended by MNAs Mr. Faiz Ullah, Sardar Nasrullah Dreshak, Makhdoom Syed Sami-ul-Hassan Gillani, Mr. Aftab Hussain Siddique, Mr. Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary, Mr. Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Mr. Ali Pervaiz,  Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Ms. Nafisa Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, and Moulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, besides the senior Officers of the Ministry of Finance, FBR, SBP, NBP and Ministry of Law, Stakeholders.