ISLAMABAD-A parliamentary committee on Tuesday expressed its concerns over promotions in the National Bank of Pakistan and directed NBP president to consider appeals of the employees who were deprived of promotions.
The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, which met under the chairmanship of MNA Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh has shown its concerns over the recent promotions in the NBP.
The committee directed NBP President Saeed Ahmad to consider the appeals received from NBP employees.
The NBP president informed the committee that the bank had received more than five hundred appeal applications for consideration.
He said that the NBP would address the grievances of the employees as requested by the committee.
The committee expressed dissatisfaction over allocation of 50 marks for the interview alone out of the total 100 marks.
The committee members said promotion policy was against the ruling of the apex court.
The committee recommended that agriculture loaning to small farmers should be on lowest markup rates, which could be single digit.
The committee was informed by the NBP president that government has decided to provide Rs 300 Billion to small farmers on zero markup ratio.
He added that NBP share in said value would be Rs 11 billion for disbursement of loans to agriculture sector.
Considering "The Controller General of Accounts (Appointments, Functions and Powers) (Amendment) Bill, 2017" (moved by Asad Umar, MNA). The secretary Ministry of Finance informed the committee that subject Bill has already been considered in the meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance of the Senate, wherein, it has decided that subject Bill should be referred to the Standing Committee on Cabinet, because Ministry of Finance has already been taken its action in this regard.
The committee decided that the bill should be submitted before the Speaker for further guidance whether it relates with Standing Committee on Cabinet.
The committee discussed the matter pertaining to industrial importer at import stage for raw material falling under chapter 25 to 55 will pay @ 2 WHT adjustable. No exemption certificate will be issued to industries. Commercial Importers importing raw material under Chapter 25 to 55 will pay 4% WHT as full and final. Rest Regime of WHT will remain the same which is for finished product. FPCCI agreed with the said proposal.
The committee members have shown their displeasure about non-cooperative attitude of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for implementing the recommendations of the Committee.
However, Member (IR) FBR informed that FBR had already implemented the said recommendation, partially.
The chairman of the committee was of the firm view that FBR should implement the recommendations of the Committee with its true spirit.
The Committee discussed the property issues being faced by the real estate sector with regard to the anomalies highlighted by Pakistan Real Estate Investment Forum (PREIF) and ABAD, etc. Member (IR-Policy) FBR assured that FBR had already addressed the grievances of the real estate stakeholders and would be pleased to resolve the issues/anomalies in future with the consultation of real estate stakeholders in this regard.
The committee recommended that real estate stakeholders would be called in its next meeting for further deliberations on the anomalies.
The committee members were of the view that Section 236-W of Income Tax Act, 2016 should be reviewed for removing the upper cape, defined by FBR.
Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh stated that government will achieve more revenue by taking such kind of positive measures. He was of the view that FBR officers should understand the problems being faced by the general public. He added that government should further introduce businessmen friendly policies.
The committee deferred agenda regarding market abused, insider trading, misappropriation in stock market, role of Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and actions taken by the SECP due to short of time and decided that same would be considered in its next meeting.
