ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed that a new legislation should be finalized within a week to effectively deal with offences related to money laundering and strengthen the existing laws to effectively check Hawala/Hundi and other illegal corrupt practices.
Addressing a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office here on Friday, he approved a package to incentivize remittances through legal channels. It was decided that the State Bank of Pakistan, being the regulatory authority in the banking sector, would take action against elements involved in facilitating fake bank accounts in the country.
The prime minister tasked the Finance secretary to submit recommendations for regulating trade under the Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Agreement to check its misuse. It was decided that necessary amendments would be introduced to the existing laws including the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 for effectively dealing with cases of money laundering and other illegal practices.
The Interior secretary informed the meeting that task forces, at national as well as provincial levels, had been constituted to identify legislative and administrative constraints in effective implementation of AML activities and suggest corrective measures.
The provincial task forces have been mandated to take timely action against individuals/institutions involved in activities falling within the domains of Hawala/Hundi. The National Task Force would submit a monthly report to the PMO on its performance including coordinated actions undertaken and recoveries affected.
The Interior secretary identified various actions including making Islamabad International Airport as a model airport with regard to inter-agency coordination and installation of truck scanners at Torkham to check money laundering, smuggling and other illegal practices.
The PM approved a package for enhancement of remittances through legal channels. It was decided to increase airtime to Rs 2 against each USD received through M Wallet. It was decided that banks/exchange companies would be reimbursed Rs 1 per USD as marketing expenses and promotional activities on remittances exceeding 15pc in FY19 compared to FY18.
The PM approved a proposal for launching an awareness campaign by the SBP for remittance customers. The budgetary impact of the package was estimated around Rs. 2.3 billion.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Asad Omar, Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan, SAPMs Zulfi Bukhari, Iftikhar Durrani, federal secretaries, DG FIA, chairman NADRA, deputy governor SBP and other senior officials.
The prime minister also chaired another meeting to discuss issues related to power sector, especially the progress made so far towards countrywide crackdown on power theft and the way forward to curtail losses in the power sector. The Power Division secretary informed the meeting that the division in coordination with provincial task forces was carrying forward the campaign against power theft in all provinces.
He said that besides taking strict action against elements involved in power pilferage, action was also being taken against those employees who facilitated power theft. He informed that recently a gang was busted in LESCO and Faisalabad, which was tampering electricity meters with software.
The meeting also discussed low recoveries in KP. The PM was informed that out of total losses in KP, major losses were being incurred in the PESCO region. Expressing concern over the quantum of power theft, the PM stated that it was unacceptable that those who were regularly paying their dues had to face inconvenience of load-shedding because of the theft by some elements. The prime minister directed the KP CM and the Power minister to highlight the issue before the public and garner their support on crackdown on power theft.
It was decided to expedite installation of electricity meters in the areas where electricity was being used through direct connections (Kunda system). The meeting was attended by Power Minister Omar Ayub, KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, Power Secy Irfan Ali, KP Home Secretary Ikram Ullah, Energy Task Force Head Nadeem Babar and other officials.
