ISLAMABAD: Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has directed the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to finalise ‘Draft Companies Bill-2016’ within two months by taking all stakeholders on board and making further deliberations to improve corporate culture in the country.
Addressing a seminar on “Draft Companies Bill-2016”, organised by SECP, the minister said main objective of the event was to get expert opinion before the finalization of draft bill in order to make it more vibrant and effective.
The government, he said, was acting upon its reforms agenda from the day first and has introduced several economic and constitutional reforms to ensure innovation and transparency in political and economic sectors.
During the last two years, government had made lot of legislation with consultation of all the stakeholders in order to bring economic and political reforms in the country and to give a better Pakistan for future generations, he added.
He said government was also working on electoral reforms by taking all political forces on board for ensuring integrity and transparency in election process.
Ishaq Dar called upon the SECP for taking the members of Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan and other legal experts from civil society into confidence before finalization of draft law.
He said the draft bill would mobilize the foreign direct investment into the country besides restoring investors’ confidence and their facilitation.
Highlighting the salient feature of local economy, he said that overwhelming economic progress was witnessed during the last 32 months as budget deficit came down from 8.2 percent to 4.3 percent besides remarkable increase in GDP growth of 4.4 percent which was higher during last 7 years.
He said that a significant decrease in inflation from 12 percent to 2 percent was also witnessed besides encouraging growth in forex exchange reserves, coupled with increasing revenue collection which had recorded 18 percent growth during the last 8 months of current financial year.
