The Federal Board of Revenue informed the committee about the budgetary allocations and spending and informed that it was well on track as far as budget utilization was concerned.

The Statistics Division also informed the committee that the budgetary allocations made for the division were being utilized as per schedule.

Chief Census Commissioner, Asif Bajwa, on the occasion briefed the committee about the ongoing census process, saying that the second phase of census was continuing in 88 districts across the country.

He informed the committee that the government had allocated budget of Rs 18.5 billion for the process, out of which Rs 6 billion was budget for army, Rs 6 billion budget of PBS to given honorarium to the enumerators while the remaining amount of Rs 6.5 billion was being utilized for transportation of census staff and materials.

Privatization Division also briefed the committee about the budgetary allocation and its utilization till February 2017.

The committee also discussed a Private Member Bill further to amend the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance 2001 (The Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) (Amendment) Bill 2017, introduced by Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati.

Commenting on the bill Azam Swati said terrorism could not be eliminated unless the financial terrorism was eliminated.

He was of the view that the penalty for money laundering should be strict and a legal structure should be developed to curb this menace.

The private member bill to amend the Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) act 2017 (The Anti Money Laundering (Amendment) Bill 2017) as withdrawn which was introduced by Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati was withdrawn.

Meanwhile, the committee continued clause-by-clause reading of Companies Bill-2017 and recommended certain omissions and additions in it.

The bill aims to reform and re-enact the law relating to companies and for matters connected therewith (the Companies Bill 2017).

The bill was passed by the National Assembly and referred to the committee on February 17, for consideration and report.

The committee meeting was chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, and was attended by Senators, Kamil Ali Agha and Ilyas Ahmed Balour and Muhamamd Azam Khan Swati.

The meeting was also attended by officials from Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Law Division and other relevant stakeholders, PBS, FBR, and privatization Commission.