Senate body to discuss circular debt today

ISLAMABAD: The senate’s standing committee on finance, revenue, economic affairs, statistics and privatisation will meet today (Thursday) to further discuss the clearance of power sector’s circular debt amounting to Rs480 billion, a statement said on Wednesday.

The meeting will be chaired by Saleem Mandviwala. It will also discuss the rules made by the president as a stopgap arrangement under Article 79 of the constitution. The statement said the committee will discuss why the custody of federal consolidated fund and public account had not been properly regulated by the act of Majlis-e-Shoora (parliament).

Criteria, adopted by the House Building Finance Company (HBFC) along with the details of loans granted during the last three years with year-wise breakup will also come under discussion during the meeting.

The committee will also discuss the compliance report of the HBFC in respect of writing off of loans outstanding against 5,000 widows as recommended by it in its meeting held on September 21. 

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will brief the committee on the number of decretal cases referred by the courts and which are still lying pending with the SBP along with the detailed position of those cases which were reported by the chairman committee.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will brief the committee about the issue of alleged corruption committed by the FBR officials working in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.