ISLAMABAD: The incumbent government has collected around $30 million under the ‘Pakistan Banao Certificate’ (PBC) from the Pakistani expatriates living abroad.
Earlier this year, the government had launched Pakistan Banao Certificates which overseas Pakistanis could purchase. The certificates were aimed at getting more investment from expatriates to revive the economy.
According to Finance Ministry Spokesperson Umar Hameed, Pakistan Banao Certificate is a script-less issue which does not require any extension. “The scheme is continuing,” Hameed said, adding that only advertisement campaign ended on June 30, 2019.
Speaking about the Pakistan Fund for Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams which were initiated by the former chief justice, top officials of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said the total amount collected from the dams fund is around Rs10.9 billion. The amount is invested in the government’s treasury bills through the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP).
“Now the additional funds collected for dam funds were invested into treasury bills,” the official said, adding that there was no benefit of the amount if it remained idle into the account of the SBP. The investment into treasury bills is totally guaranteed and risk-free so it was decided to use this avenue to earn mark-up at a time when the banks were earning good margins because of higher interest rates.
