LAHORE ( Web News )
A signing ceremony was held at the State Bank of Pakistan head office to appoint the Bank of Punjab (BOP) as agent bank for the collection of Government receipts in Balochistan. The ceremony was attended by Mr. Jamil Ahmed-Deputy Governor State Bank of Pakistan and Mr. Zafar Masud-President & CEO, BOP.
On request of the Government of Balochistan, State Bank of Pakistan has declared the Bank of Punjab (BOP) as agent bank for the collection of Government Receipts in Balochistan. Under the agreement, BOP will act as collecting agent of Government Receipts covering e-Stamping and Land Record Management Information Systems in the province of Balochistan.
On the occasion, Mr. Saleem Ullah – Executive Director FRM SBP, felicitated the Bank of Punjab for this initiative with the Government of Balochistan, which will make it convenient for the people of Balochistan to make stamp duty payments. Further, it will tackle the issue of fake stamp papers and improve Balochistan Government’s stamp duty receipts.
Mr. Zafar Masud (President & CEO – The Bank of Punjab) said, “The Bank of Punjab is very excited to work on this important project and ready to implement its proven and state-of-the-art e-Stamping solution on a fast-track basis with the Government of Balochistan under the guidelines of the State Bank of Pakistan. As BOP, we intend to continue to offer our services to other provinces as well, learning from our unique and successful experiences with GoPb, particularly in the areas of digital payments, low-cost housing, concessional financing, etc. Being a nation-wide entity, we would like to capitalize on our footprint across Pakistan, from Kashmir to Gwadar, and provide impeccable services to all provinces alike.”
The ceremony was also attended by Mr. Saleem Ullah – Executive Director FRM and Mr. Qader Bakhsh – Director Finance from the State Bank of Pakistan whereas Mr. Waqas Mahmood – Chief Compliance Officer and Mr. Reza Asghar – Head Transaction Banking represented the Bank of Punjab.
The Bank of Punjab has been awarded the agent bank mandate by the State Bank of Pakistan for all Government of Punjab Receipts and has been successfully performing various agent bank functions to increase and streamline treasury receipts since 2016.