Virtual Assets Bill 2025 Under Scrutiny in Senate Finance Committee

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, was held today to review the “Virtual Assets Bill” and the performance of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) over the last five years. The Committee discussed the Government Bill titled “The Virtual Assets Bill, 2025.” Senator Afnan Ullah Khan informed that a bill encompassing the same subject had been submitted by him in the Senate and was currently in process, but the Government came up with a bill carrying the same content.

The Committee directed the Secretary of Law and Justice to review the soft copy shared by Senator Afnan Ullah Khan during the Committee meeting and submit a comparison thereafter in the next meeting.

Reviewing the irregularities in SECP worth Rs. 267 million, as highlighted in the AGP’s report, the Chairman of SECP stated that the same sort of irregularities had been raised in previous years, which were later settled after a comprehensive response from SECP.

Virtual Assets Bill 2025 Under Scrutiny in Senate Finance Committee

However, the Committee raised eyebrows over the “Regulatory Bodies’” powers to increase their salaries. It was revealed that three Regulatory Bodies have the power to increase their salaries among all the existing bodies. The Committee called for rationalisation of such powers and stated that the power to increase salaries should reside only with the Cabinet and the Prime Minister. The Committee recommended that the Finance Division submit amendments within one month for the rationalisation of such powers vested in Regulatory Bodies.

Discussing the performance of the CCP during the last five years, the Chairman CCP informed that the CCP had a backlog of around 567 legal disputes pending for several years, of which 280 cases had been resolved since August 2023. CCP has also recovered Rs. 412 million in penalties in the last two years.

Moreover, a penalty of around Rs. 43.5 billion had been imposed on the Sugar Industry and Rs. 6.4 billion on the Cement Industry, which has not been recovered due to existing stay orders obtained by the relevant industry. The Committee directed the CCP to provide details of the stay orders along with the dates from which such cases have been pending. The Committee also recommended that the Secretary of Law and Justice provide legal aid to the CCP in the resolution of legal cases and decided to invite the Attorney General of Pakistan and Advocate General of Pakistan to the upcoming meeting.

See Also: SECP Mandates Digital Payments Across Financial Market Outlets

In attendance were Anusha Rahman, Ahmad Khan, Farooq Hamid Naek, Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Abdul Qadir, Dilawar Khan, Afnan Ullah Khan, Additional Secretary for Finance and Revenue Amjad Mahmood, Chairman FBR Rashid Mahmood Langrial, Chairman FBR Akif Saeed, Chairman CCP Dr. Kabir Ahmed Sidhu and Senior Officials of relevant departments.