ISLAMABAD-The Central Directorate of National Saving (CDNS) has set a target of Rs75 billion in fiscal year 2023-24 to promote the Islamic financial sector in the country.
The aim was to introduce new dimensions in the Islamic finance sector, a senior official of CDNS told media here on Tuesday. The official informed that CDNS had reviewed and set a target of Rs60 billion in the fiscal year (2022-23) for Islamic investment to introduce the new products in the market. “Islamic finance has a very important role in the global financial sector at this time, and a large part of the economy of many major countries currently includes Islamic finance,” The senior official said, adding that work on Islamic finance is still needed in Pakistan.
He said that at present, work was being done on institutional reforms in CDNS and new reforms and innovations were being introduced. He said, “At this time Automated Teller Machine (ATM) has also been introduced in CDNS which will provide enough facilities to the users.”
The official said, “CDNS will now provide facilities to its customers as a complete bank.” Replying to a question, he said, “The CDNS has digitised National Savings Certificates (NSCs) for the convenience of consumers and to modernise the institutional process.” He said the CDNS and Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited (CDCP) signed an agreement to start a pilot project to digitise and dematerialise the NSCs last week.
The official said that this would increase investment in National Savings and increase consumers’ confidence, adding that the agreement between National Savings and CDCP was a part of the automation and digitisation of the institution. He said the CDNS has digitised National Savings Certificates (NSCs) for the convenience of consumers and to modernise the institutional process. Replying to another question, the official said that the Central Directorate of National Saving (CDNS) has set a target of Rs1,743 billion for the current Fiscal Year 2023-24, to promote the saving culture in the country.
This is Rs443 billion additional than the target of Rs1,300 billion for the previous financial year 2022-23, he said. The official said, “The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) attained the target of issuing Rs1.48 trillion in fresh bonds in the fiscal year 2022-23.”