PAKISTAN’S Board of Investment (BoI) suffered a loss of Rs212.2 million (£967,885) as it refrained from investing funds for profit considering it Riba.
Riba is a concept in Islamic banking that refers to charged interest.
BoI secretary Fareena Mazhar said board had experienced change of command since 2018 as its four secretaries were changed during this period.
“Moreover, the decision-makers were against investing the funds for profit considering it Riba,” she said in response to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) query about the loss.
The audit report on BoI’s accounts for the 2019-20 said, “non-investment of funds after maturity was a serious lapse on the part of the management”.
The audit report also noted that poor performance of the BoI led to substantial decline in foreign direct investment (FDI).
PAC chairman Rana Tanveer Hussain directed her to conduct an inquiry and fix responsibility for this decision.
The committee also directed the BoI to frame the rules and regulations within three months.
