The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday has instructed commercial banks to refund unpaid public money under the National Debt Retirement Programme (NDRP)-II (Qarz-e-Hasna) that have been pending. Media sources have reported that the banks would only refund the principal amount without any profits since the NDRP II is a non-profitable scheme.
The claimants have been asked to approach respective banks with receipt/certificate for encashment of their deposits under the NDRP-II and the banks have been asked by the SBP to facilitate all claimants and encash the deposits after due verification.
The banks after making payments will claim reimbursement from the SBP against the deposit of paid documents and instruments.
As per the reports, the government had launched the NDRP scheme to borrow Rs 2.8b from the public but had only utilised Rs 1.7b for debt retirement, which was instituted in 1997 by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after coming to power to discharge the ever increasing national debt liabilities.
Amounts in the NDRP were to be accepted from an individual, company, body and institution under the categories of donation (NDRP-I), Qarz-e-Hasna (NDRP-II) and term deposit (NDRP-III).
The deposits under NDRP-I were non-refundable whereas deposits under NDRP-II and NDRP-III were for a minimum period of two years.
Depositors were issued a receipt/certificate against the deposits under NDRP-II by banks and Special Saving Certificates (SSC)/Defence Saving Certificates (DSC) were issued against deposits under NDRP-III by the Central Directorate of National Savings, Ministry of Finance.
After two years, the depositors were able to encash their deposits at par in case of NDRP-II and as per terms and conditions of SSC/DSC for deposits under NDRP-III.
