Government of Pakistan is set to introduce a new Saving Scheme for overseas Pakistanis

The Government of Pakistan is about to launch a new Savings scheme for the overseas Pakistanis. This new scheme is called “Overseas Pakistani Savings Bills”. The Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan issued draft Rules in this regard on April 8, 2020.

According to the draft rules, Non-resident individual Pakistanis (NRIPs) having National Identify Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP), foreigners having Pakistani Origin Card (POC), members of overseas Pakistanis foundation or an employee / official of federal or provincial government posted abroad are eligible to invest in this scheme. The bills can also be purchased by a minor and can be purchased jointly or singly.

These bills will be issued both in conventional and shariah compliant form. The tenor of these bills shall be 3, 6 or 12 months and will be issued in USD as well as PKR. The rate of return of these bill has not been specified yet.

These bill are neither transferable nor can be pledged with a financial institution as a collateral. While deduction of zakat is exempted on these bills, tax is deductible from the profit earned on these bills. The bills will be issued in scrip-less form through selected commercial banks. The new scheme is yet another initiative by GOP to attract investment from Pakistani nationals living aboard. If the response from overseas Pakistani is highly overwhelming, this scheme will prove to be beneficial in boosting Pakistan’s Forex reserves. In the last year, the Government of Pakistan in coordination with State Bank of Pakistan had launched a similar investment scheme called “Pakistan Banao Certificate” which has not been widely successful.