ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: Officials of the ministry of finance are going through various drafts prepared and submitted by the Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) recommending independent status for the organization.

Through these drafts various proposals have been submitted seeking "corporation, authority or company" status for the CDNS.

Earlier, the idea of turning the CDNS into a corporation was dropped. But now it is reportedly being considered once again. One of the reasons for delay in converting the CDNS into a corporation or an authority was that some officials did not want to give up their control over the organization.

So far it has been suggested that the proposed new body should be supervised by a Board of Directors to be headed by the secretary Finance and should include secretaries of Establishment, Economic Affairs Division (EAD), deputy governor State Bank, additional secretary budget of the ministry of finance and one ex-banker of the national repute as its members.

The Director General, CDNS Mr Awais Pirzada is expected to be the first president of the independent body. Mr. Pirzada who has spent more than three years in the CDNS will continue to be its head.

Presently, the CDNS is marketing only government securities through a network of some 320 branches. With significant reduction in return on fixed securities, brought about by the market conditions, small savers were feeling frustrated as they have no access to those securities that offer better return.

Under the proposed programme, there will be an upgradation of all the national saving centres across Pakistan through a detailed automation programme. The number of transactions has increased manifold that warranted automation as it was becoming increasingly difficult to achieve desired results through manual handling of things.

Sources said that CDNS, whose portfolio has increased from Rs80 billion to Rs1 trillion along with 4 million plus clients, wanted by the government to enjoy considerable financial autonomy after becoming an authority or a corporation.

The CDNS, which was fulfilling the requirement of deposit banking functions, was expected to have its pay scales revised upward with a view to offering good salary packages to the employees after becoming authority.