Exemption to Nadra from relending policy: IMC formed to prepare recommendations

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) to prepare recommendations on a proposal to grant exemption to NADRA from relending policy on a loan of World Bank to be utilized under Digital Economy Enhancement Project (DEEP), well-informed sources told Business Recorder.

Sources said on November 23, 2023, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication briefed the forum that DEEP was a World Bank assisted project with the objective to enhance the government’s capacity for digitally enabled public services delivery for citizens and businesses.

The project would not only provide ease to citizens and businesses but would also enable higher degree of transparency, lower the cost of processing, and increase the tax collection capabilities of the federal and provincial governments.

The project had been developed in collaboration with the World Bank which was providing financing assistance worth $ 77.73 million (IDA credit). The project was recommended to ECNEC by CDWP in its meeting held on 19October 2022.

The project was approved by ECNEC in its meeting held on 6 April 2023 and authorization from Ministry of Planning, Development & Special initiatives was issued on May17, 2023. Ministry of Information Technology and Teleco-mmunication was the sponsoring agency of the project.

Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication further noted that it held multiple stakeholder sessions involving Federal and provincial government entities and it is through these sessions that NADRA was identified as the most suitable Federal Government entity to implement the two components i.e., Development and Implementation of Interoperability Exchange Layer and National Digital ID and Digital vault [Digital ID]as they cannot be issued by any other entity in Pakistan other than NADRA. It is the digital equivalent of National ID card and would contain personal record which only NADRA was authorized to maintain. NADRA had already facilitated about 1000 entities in digitization and had a vantage point to effectively operationalise the Data Exchange Layer once it had been developed.

As per approved relending policy of the government, relending to autonomous bodies, in this case NADRA, would be made on the same financing terms and conditions as borrowed by the Federal Government from the foreign lender. In addition, a fixed administrative charge of 0.25 per cent would be charged. The requirement for exemption of NADRA from relending policy was highlighted by EAD after the project was approved by ECNEC. The competent forum for any exemption from the terms specified in the policy is the ECC of the Cabinet.

Ministry of Information Technology and Telecomm requested the ECC to grant exemption to NADRA from the relending policy for execution of the two components under DEEP and allow that $ 24.633 million are provided to NADRA as a grant for carrying out its part of the project activities.

During the ensuing discussions it was explained that those institutions which are revenue earning should not expect such exemptions and should bear the normal costs involved such as ECC decisions in some other cases.

After detailed deliberations, the ECC formed a committee comprising Secretary Finance, Secretary Economic Affairs and Secretary Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication to submit a viable proposal in the next ECC meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023