ISLAMABAD: The Sec­ur­ities and Exchange Com­mission of Pakistan (SECP) has launched a Companies Regularisation Scheme (CRS) for Gilgit-Baltisitan.

The scheme aims to give relief to companies registered in GB which were not regular in filing of statutory returns.

Under CRS, companies registered in GB can file their overdue returns on payment of normal fee as prescribed under the sixth schedule of Companies Ordinance, 1984.

All the companies registered in GB are advised in their own interest to benefit from this golden opportunity to regularise their statutory record by filing overdue returns/annual accounts with normal filing fee, the SECP said.

The scheme shall be applicable to all companies and would remain operative for a period of three months from Feb 1, 2017 to April 30, 2017.

After the closure of the scheme, necessary legal action shall be initiated against the non-compliant companies, the commission added.

Pension funds asset cross Rs22bn: Total net assets of the pension fund industry – contributed by 15,000 participants – have crossed Rs22 billion.

Private pension funds were introduced in the country in 2007 under the ‘Voluntary Pension System Rules, 2005’.

There are 17 pension funds, out of which nine are Sharia-compliant and eight are conventional.

The pension funds provide participants with the options to invest in securities and commodities. Participants can choose allocation policies suiting their risk and return preferences.

All persons holding CNIC are eligible to become members of pension funds and accumulate savings for their retired life.

Tax credit of up to 20 per cent of taxable income can be availed upon investment in pension funds.

The SECP is encouraging the spread of pension funds to provide safe investment options for the salaried persons, and citizens above 40 years of age can avail higher tax benefits. Participants have the flexibility to choose retirement age between 60 to 70 years.

Upon retirement, they can withdraw up to 50pc of the accumulated balance in lump sum and the remaining 50pc in installments as pension, or 100pc in installments.

Due to strict monitoring by the SECP, the fund managers – depending on the asset class – charge fee ranging from 0.5pc to 1.5pc per annum from the pension funds. Further, the fund managers can charge sales load up to 3pc of the contribution. However, the SECP has issued a directive restraining pension fund managers to charge sales load if investors themselves approach them for investment.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2017