What are the Naya Pakistan Certificates?

Prime Minister Imran Khan recently inaugurated the Naya Pakistan Certificates (NPCs), which is among the present government’s latest initiatives to provide attractive avenues of investment and saving for Overseas Pakistanis.

Alongside the Roshan Digital Accounts (RDAs)- the first initiative of its kind by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the PM was of the view that the initiative of Naya Pakistan Certificates would add further value to the RDA.

Now coming to the question, what are Naya Pakistan Certificates? The NPCs is an initiative of the Ministry of Finance and administered by the SBP to offer attractive investment opportunities to overseas Pakistanis and resident Pakistanis with assets held abroad. These certificates are available both in conventional and Shariah-compliant versions.

NPCs are sovereign instruments, denominated in USD and PKR, issued by the Government of Pakistan under Public Debt Act, 1944 and NPC Rules 2020 and can only be purchased through RDAs– an SBP initiative, which was launched in September 2020.

NPCs offer attractive returns over different maturities and are available for Resident Pakistanis who have declared their assets abroad can also invest in USD denominated NPCs.

The minimum investment in USD denominated certificates is USD 5,000 which can be increased by integral multiples of USD 1,000 with no maximum limit. Whereas for PKR denominated certificates the minimum investment is PKR 100,000, which can be increased by integral multiples of PKR 10,000 with no maximum limit.

The return on NPCs, is subject to 10 percent withholding tax, which is full and final settlement of tax obligation on NPC profits.

Further, the overseas Pakistanis are not required to file tax return on account of their earnings on NPCs.

In his address, Governor SBP Dr. Reza Baqir noted that the initiative of NPCs by the Ministry of Finance and the RDAs initiative of SBP would go a long way in meeting the demand of overseas Pakistanis for facilitating their smooth access to the financial sector in Pakistan and provide investment opportunities to them as well resident Pakistanis.

Sharing the data on Roshan Digital Accounts so far, the Governor said that the outcome of the initiative has so far been quite satisfactory and encouraging. He said that over 36 thousand RDAs have been opened so far in less than two months fetching over USD65 million of amount remitted.

He noted that the number of accounts and amounts remitted and investment is growing every day.