THE government has recently announced an amnesty scheme for ‘whitening’ the undisclosed local and foreign assets till June 30. It all looks that the scheme has been announced in haste and proper deliberations were not made on matters like prize bonds which is as liquid as cash.

As there is no restriction involved in purchasing and selling general prize bonds, a huge amount is invested legally through the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and brokers on a daily basis.

The prize on bonds is announced on 1st and 15th of each month, which can be claimed immediately or within six years from the date of announcement. The encashment of such prizes is also taking place through brokers.

The SBP has now legalised the premium prize bonds which are on record and maintained through bank accounts of the investor. However, no efforts have been made to regularise general prize bonds of different denominations through the SBP or through commercial banks before announcing the amnesty scheme.

Even if the registration/legalisation process in line with premium prize bonds starts now, it may take a long time to complete and by that time the amnesty will be over.

The fortune of general prize bonds needs to be considered carefully before implementing the amnesty scheme in question. If fair ways are not found, huge resources of the poor investor will go waste.

Therefore proper guidelines in this regard should be issued on an urgent basis as time is precious. More time may be required because of Ramazan and Eid holidays for educating the public in filling the amnesty scheme form.

Muhammad Ayub
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2019