ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday directed the State Bank to provide it the list of individuals who were written off Rs10 million and above loans by different banks under the SBP scheme for writing off irrecoverable loans and advances during 2000-04.The committee also directed National Bank of Pakistan President Ali Raza to provide the list of individuals who were written off Rs22 billion by his bank under the SBP scheme (BDP Circular 29).

Zari Taraqqiati Bank Ltd (ZTBL) has already provided a list of 47 industrialists to the NA committee who were written off about Rs4.6 billion under the SBP remission scheme. Ironically, in sharp contrast to its main objective of developing the agriculture sector, ZTBL only wrote off Rs400 million to over 11,600 small farmers.SBP Governor Shamshad Akhtar informed the committee that the scheme had expired in 2004 and by then all the banks had recovered to good financial health after getting rid of the backlog of non-performing loans (NPL).

However, after the expiry of the scheme the banks had written off loans with the approval of their own boards of directors and had nothing to do with the SBP circular, she clarified.

She said that the SBP scheme benefited more than 50,000 individuals who were unable to pay their debts and their list could be provided to the committee. However, the committee asked the SBP governor to provide the names of only those who were given Rs10 million and above remissions, as it believed that a bigger chunk of the money went to a minority of influential people as was in the case of ZTBL.

The committee also informed the SBP governor about the recently issued currency notes of Rs10, 20, 100 and 5,000 denominations which strikingly resemble fake currency notes and have created problems for the public.

“There are 160 million people in Pakistan and as many opinions about everything as we enjoy democracy. I think better leave out this matter as it is not a big issue,” Ms Akhtar replied.

Ali Raza informed the committee that National Bank was all set to introduce Islamic banking from Dec 15.

The SBP governor also informed the committee that the State Bank would soon give a briefing to the Senate and National Assembly standing committees on finance on Islamic banking to demystify the phenomenon, which was becoming popular in many countries, including Pakistan.

MNA Kashmala Tariq said that it was believed that there were certain grey areas in the Islamic banking which must be identified to the parliamentarians.

In reply to a question, Mr Raza said that the NBP was just looking for a proper time and opportunity to sell off its over $400 million shares in Aljazera Bank of Saudi Arab. He said the bank profit before tax had increased to Rs20.16 billion by Sept 2006 from Rs13.07billion in Sept 2005.

NBP’s total assets had reached Rs625 billion by Sept 2006 as compared to Rs536 billion in the corresponding period last year, he added.