ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) here on Tuesday clarified that overseas Pakistanis had been sold National Savings Schemes (NSS) worth Rs700 million and “not” $500 million as reported in Dawn’s Monday issue.

The clarification said the government had recently activated investment facility in NSS for the overseas Pakistan in the UAE. In this regard, Habib Bank and United Bank have been designed to make various schemes available at their branches operating in the area.

“The schemes were made available in the UAE on October 28, 2002, and since then an investment of about Rs700 million has been received,” it further said.

The introduction of NSS in the UAE was aimed at encouraging the remittances through proper banking channels and promote documented economy. Another objective was to provide overseas Pakistanis with an opportunity to invest their savings in profitable and secure investment schemes, which will rebuild their confidence in domestic policies on one hand, and a reward to their efforts being put in the improvement of foreign exchange reserves, on the other hand.

“The response of the expatriates is satisfactory. However this Directorate is monitoring the investment position on daily basis so as to avoid any unfair use of these instruments,” the clarification said.

A senior official of the Ministry of Finance when contacted said the government was making sure that these NSS were sold to individual overseas Pakistanis only and not to speculators.