ISLAMABAD: The Accountant General Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Friday that 537,000 pensioners had been transferred to the Direct Credit System (DCS) from August 2015 to March 2016.

The committee chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwala discussed the issue of ghost pensioners. It was informed that the matter would be resolved gradually with the implementation of the DCS under which up to 50,000 pensioners were being transferred to the network daily.

The finance minister has directed the AGPR to transfer officers from Grade 17 to 22 to the DCS by March 31.

However, AGPR officials estimated that it would require two and a half years to transfer 2.5 million pensioners to the DCS.

The committee approved the Banks (Nationalisation) (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which would allow presidents of nationalised banks to be re-appointed for a second three-year term by the federal government in consultation with the State Bank.

The committee cleared a draft amendment to the Banks (Special Courts) Ordinance, 1984, under which both sides would be given rights to appeal.

The committee passed a bill to repeal the Equity Participation Fund Ordinance, 1970, (the Equity Participation Fund-Repeal) Bill, 2016.

The Equity Participation Fund (EPF) was established on Jan 2, 1970, through the Promulgation of Ordinance No1 of 1970 with paid up capital of Rs50 million that was subsequently increased to Rs155m to help growth of small and medium sized industrial enterprises in the private sector.

The fund was managed and administered by the Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan (IDBP). The fund mainly extended equity support to the IDBP-financed projects. Due to heavy infection in IDBP portfolio, the bank suspended further financing from 1995 owing to liquidity crunch which also affected EPF’s operations.

Thereafter, the fund mainly focused on recovery of previous loans.

The government wants to close EPF as there are several institutions of similar nature in the market with enhanced capacity and expertise to provide financing in the SME (small and medium enterprises) sector.

Besides, officials of the Ministry of Finance said that the current policies of the government were to encourage the private sector through privatisation and disinvestment.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2016