ISLAMABAD – The Government of Pakistan, in a bid to bring directinvestment home to strengthen country’s foreign reserves, will kick offroadshows in various countries within a couple of weeks.”The campaign, to be initiated from Great Britain will also cover Europeand Gulf countries, is aimed at convincing overseas Pakistanis buy‘Pakistan Banao Certificates’, (PBC) which is a US dollar denominatedretail instrument for expats offering attractive incentives,” said SpecialAssistant to PM on Overseas Pakistanis Syed Zulfikar Bukhari in anexclusive chat with APP.The overseas Pakistanis having foreign bank accounts can encash thesecertificates in dollars/rupees anytime but redemption in dollar beforefirst year will levy its one per cent, he said. Moreover, it will beexempted from withholding tax and deduction of Zakat.This was a great investment opportunity for Overseas Pakistanis which wouldbe available at 6.25 to 6.75 per cent interest rate per annum on 5,000 USdollars denomination without upper limit having three and five yearsmaturity time respectively. The opportunity was being offered by Pakistanonly across the globe, he claimed.“I will be travelling to United Kingdom by February, 6 to formally launchpromotional campaign and then move to United Arab Emirates, Qatar and othercountries to sensitize Pakistani Diaspora about its benefits to them andtheir country” Zulfikar informed.Another campaign ‘Return in Rupee’ was also on the cards to createawareness session to request expats for redeeming the bond in Pakistanirupee as Prime Minister Imran Khan had himself appealed them to strengthenPakistani rupee.He said other federal ministers would also be educating the potential OPsduring their foreign visits about advantages of the certificate to directlyengage them to make Pakistan a progressive state.The economic friendly initiative is first of its kind which allows anindividual to make investments unlike the two other bonds namely Sakuk andEuro-bond issued by the previous regime in the last five years.Highlighting its difference from previous two bonds, he said, for thosebonds, the customer had to produce KYC documents- particulars to proveidentity/addresses- which made their processes complicated but in thiscase, the applicant could buy it online by fulfilling the condition ofNICOP and valid documentation.He also stressed the need for opening up this instrument further for hedgeand pension funds to attract more foreign investment.To a query, Bukhari said though the foreign offices did not fall under hisjurisdiction but he would mobilize relevant departments to issue necessarydirections to their missions abroad.Special Assistant to PM on Media Affairs Iftikhar Durrani terming theOverseas Pakistan backbone of the country’s economy said this theinitiative was a first step of the incumbent government which wassuccessfully achieved, adding that there were more plans in the making tooffer them incentives.He said they were also working out different initiatives and saidremittances through legal means was the government’s main focus as over 15billion US dollar were being landed in Pakistan through Hawala-Hundi.The official sources said that Pakistan Banao Certificate rule, 2018promulgated to float the certificate a couple of months back by theeconomic team before competent authorities and it was decided to promote Itthrough different channels including advertisement, road shows, awarenesssessions and others.They said it may also be make compulsory for interested private bank topromote this initiative through different ways.
Pakistan Banao Certificate: PTI government to launch unprecedented initiative across World
