ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) shared its basic input with the Capital Market Growth Working Group (CMGWG) at the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).
Sources told Business Recorder Tuesday that the SECP has convened the first meeting of the CMGWG at the SECP Headquarters.
The meeting was attended by the FBR Member Inland Revenue Policy, deputy governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), managing director/CEO Pakistan Stock Exchange, officials of Pakistan Mercantile Exchange, additional secretary finance, director general debt Finance Ministry, and representative of Pakistan Banking Council.
The FBR’s senior official shared the policy measures taken in the last budget through Finance Act 2021 for the development of the capital market.
Under the Capital Market Development Plan, accelerated efforts are required for increasing financial literacy - educating existing and potential investors about their rights, roles and responsibilities.
Targeted awareness campaigns are required for retail investors, policy/decision makers, and pension and insurance sectors.
Expanding market outreach is also a major challenge when it comes to investor awareness, which needs to be dealt with by expanding branch network of the market intermediaries, capital market infrastructure institutions and by making use of technological innovations for targeting geographically remote investor base.
Also, major initiatives are required to reinforce investor confidence in the market by further improving risk management, governance and transparency and investor protection in the capital market operations.
This also calls for implementation of effective ongoing supervision and enforcement mechanisms and compliance processes including enhanced market monitoring and surveillance and inspections. Realizing the need to formulate a comprehensive strategy to meet the challenges faced by the Pakistani capital market, the SECP initiated work on formulating a CMDP outlining strategic objectives and initiatives for coming two years.
Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin had directed to form a Coordination Committee for smooth implementation of the terms of reference (ToRs) of the Capital Market Advisory Council (CMAC).
He further directed to include members from the SECP, the SBP, the Pakistan Banking Council, commercial markets, legal counsel and an expert on Islamic Banking in the Coordination Committee for a comprehensive stakeholders’ feedback.
It was also decided that the SECP shall be the secretariat of the Coordination Committee and Chairman SECP shall be its head/secretary.
It was agreed that the Coordination Committee shall meet once a month and send its recommendations for review to the apex committee of the CMAC that will issue directions to the SECP and other relevant stakeholders for final implementation.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021