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NA body for referral of NBP’s Bangladesh scam to NAB
By Ahmad Ahmadani
ISLAMABAD: While showing concerns on the increase of circular debt, National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation on Tuesday recommended that National Bank of Pakistan’s Bangladesh scam should be referred to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for further necessary action. The NA body met here in the Parliament House on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Omar Ayub Khan. The meeting was held to discuss and review the economic progress and performance of the government in the last financial year and 2014-15 till date. The meeting also discussed the imposition of GST/other taxes by the government and considered the Credit Bureau Bill, 2015 and sub-committee report to probe the causes of Bangladesh scam in National Bank of Pakistan and fixation of responsibility against persons/officials involved. The meeting recommended the government to overcome the circular debt and NAB should take necessary action against the officials involved in NBP’s Bangladesh scam. The meeting was briefed by the Ministry of Finance & Revenue acting secretary about economic progress and performance of the government. She said when the present government took over the economy was already weak and fragile. As the growth rate had averaged less than 3% since 2008-9, inflation had averaged around 12% and national reserves dropped below $8 billion (SBP $2.8 billion in February, 2014) due to heavy repayments to the international financial institutes against the loans earlier obtained by the previous governments. Briefing the meeting about the milestones achieved by the government, the acting secretary said large scale manufacturing (LSM) has recorded a growth of 4.9% in November as compared to 2.7% in the same month last year. During July-November FY15 the growth of LSM is recorded at 2.5%. The meeting was attended by MNAs including Fatima Khawaja, Saeed Ahmed Khan Manais, Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Rana Shamim Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Pervaiz malik, Sheikh Fayyazud Din, Phyllis Azeem, Syed Naveed Qamar, Dr Nafeesa Shah, Muhammad Ali Rashid and Abdul Rashid Godil. Senior officers from Ministry of Finance and Revenue, NBP and State Bank of Pakistan also attended the meeting.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk