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Category: Business

  • Ghulam Khan transit route made operational to boost Pak-Afghan trade ties

    Ghulam Khan transit route made operational to boost Pak-Afghan trade ties

    Ghulam Khan Transit Trade Route has been made operational by the Government of Pakistan. It will connect the traders of North Waziristan and Afghanistan.

    It is an initiative to improve trade ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan. For several years, the volume of trade has decreased between the two neighbouring countries due to inefficient policies from both sides.

    Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Frontier Customs Agents Association (FCAA) President Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi praised the government’s move to open the Ghulam Khan border for the Afghan transit trade, saying that it will give a forward push to bilateral trade.

    “Over the last couple of years, trade volume has fallen from less than $2.5 billion to less than $1 billion,” Sarhadi added.

    He further said that the distance through the third most important border crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan, from Karachi and Gwadar to Kabul, will be reduced by about 400km, which would significantly reduce transportation costs.

    It will also reduce the transportation cost, and more than 20,000 locals from North Waziristan will get employment opportunities.

  • Rs2.7m price fixed for apartments at Naya Pakistan Apartment project

    Rs2.7m price fixed for apartments at Naya Pakistan Apartment project

    People from the lower-income class can now own home through small instalments, said Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Naya Pakistan Apartment project.

    Praising the courts for allowing the government to implement the foreclosure law, PM Khan said the law has allowed people to own houses on a mortgage.

    “People will only pay installments instead of rent and will become owners of their own homes,” said PM Imran.

    He added that the status quo has adopted the system of bribery and never want Pakistan to change for the better.

    “Pakistan will have to transform itself if it needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century,” asserted the premier.

    PM Khan also appreciated the efforts of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), saying: “The LDA has brought about a lot of improvements in itself.”

    As per details, the authority will construct 35,000 apartments in different parts of the city under the LDA City Naya Pakistan project.

    Around 4,000 apartments will be constructed during the first phase. Every apartment will cover a 650 square feet area and will have two bedrooms.

    The price for the apartments has been fixed at Rs2.7million each which will be taken in easy installments.

    Earlier, Punjab Minister for Housing and Urban Development Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed said that the Punjab government assigned all development authorities in Lahore and other big cities to build housing units for the low-income people.

    The provincial minister further added that these plans are being replicated in Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad, and Rawalpindi to provide homes to the low-income population of the country under PM Imran’s vision.

  • Atif Mian awarded prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in Economics

    Atif Mian awarded prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in Economics

    The prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in Economics has been awarded to Pakistan’s Dr Atif Mian this year.

    Dr Mian is the co-founder and a board member of the Center of Economic Research Pakistan (CERP). He is currently a Professor of Economics, Public Policy, and Finance at the prestigious Princeton University.

    The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awards the Guggenheim Fellowship to exceptional individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional ability and creativity in academics.

    The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was established in 1925. It has granted nearly $400 million in Fellowships to over 18,000 individuals.

    Out of 18,000, 125 are Nobel laureates, members of all the national academies, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Fields Medal, Turing Award, Bancroft Prize, National Book Award, and other internationally recognised honours.

    Dr Mian was appointed as an advisor in the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan in-add-date, but was removed following backlash and criticism by extremist religious groups on the government for appointing a person from the Ahmadi faith. His removal on September 7, 2018 prompted council members Asim Ijaz Khwaja and Imran Rasul to resign in protest.

  • Pakistan commits to IMF Rs1.27 trillion hike in taxes

    Pakistan commits to IMF Rs1.27 trillion hike in taxes

    Pakistan has committed to increasing Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) taxes by Rs1.272 trillion (almost 2.8 per cent of GDP) and a price increase of Rs4.97 per unit in the remaining three months of the current fiscal year (FY).

    IMF released a document, and it says that the government of Pakistan has agreed to continuous adjustments in electricity tariffs from next year on a monthly, quarterly and annually basis.

    The documents also state that the government would also increase the price of petroleum and oil products (maximum of Rs30).

    The petroleum levy target for the coming year is Rs607bn. The provinces have given an undertaking of Rs570bn cash surplus to the federal government and increase it by Rs729bn next year.

    The government has also set a target of Rs5.963tr (against Rs4.691tr revised target of current FY) in the next year budget for FBR. Additional Rs500bn tax generation through General Sales Tax (GST) and personal income tax reform for FY 2022 budget is also under consideration.

    The government has also given an undertaking to make adjustments in gas tariff and will not consider any tax exemptions or amnesties in the future.

    Also, IMF made detailed audits are a must for the fund allocation to combat COVID-19, which includes contracts and beneficial ownerships of bidding results and medical supplies.

    IMF’s mission chief for Pakistan Ernesto Ramirez Rigo said that despite the hard economic conditions amid COVID-19, critical adjustments in energy tariff are inevitable. The rising circular debt is detrimental to public finance and economic growth.

    He said that these unpleasant changes are necessary and the solution lies in cost recoveries, loss reduction and system improvement.

  • Forex reserves fall to $20.679bn

    Forex reserves fall to $20.679bn

    The Foreign Exchange reserves of Pakistan fell by $157 million or 0.75 per cent to clock in at $20.679 billion, said the central bank on Thursday.

    The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $20.836 billion in the previous week.

    The reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decreased by $146 million to $13.527 billion due to external debt repayments. The reserves of commercial banks also reduced to $7.152 billion from $7.163 billion last week.

    Earlier, Pakistan received inflows amounting to $2.5 billion on Thursday evening as proceeds of recently launched Eurobonds.

    The central bank has confirmed on its Twitter account that SBP has received the government’s proceeds of $2.5 billion against Eurobond issuance, resulting in $16 billion surges in foreign exchange reserves. 

    After a gap of almost three years, Pakistan has entered the international capital market for Eurobonds trading. A multi-tranche transaction of 5-,10-, and 30- year Eurobonds was performed to build up the foreign exchange reserves. 

    During the past two years, Pakistan got almost $3 billion in foreign inflows and out of these, $2.5 billion from Eurobonds arrival on Thursday evening.

    Besides, in the last week of March, International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave around $500 million to Pakistan as a loan under Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for support. 

    As of April 2, 2021, SBP’s liquid foreign exchange reserves were $20.679 billion. With the addition of Eurobond proceeds, these foreign exchange reserves would likely cross the $23 billion mark.

  • SBP could soon be launching digital currency in Pakistan

    SBP could soon be launching digital currency in Pakistan

    State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Dr Reza Baqir has said the central bank is carefully studying the options to launch digital currency in Pakistan.

    Speaking to a private media outlet, Baqir highlighted the role of the central bank in the wake of COVID-19 in Pakistan. He also talked about his vision to bring digitisation to the country’s financial sector.

    “The launch of digital coin in Pakistan will have a twofold benefit to us. Not only does it boosts our efforts for financial inclusion, but the central bank-issued digital currency will allow progress in our fight towards anti-money and countering terrorism financing,” said Baqir.

    On the entry of global fintech companies like stripe in the Pakistani market, Baqir said that big international payment providers are “very welcome” in Pakistan.

    “Pakistan is the home to the fifth-largest concentration of people. It is a market where people are generally tech-savvy, and it is a market that is waiting to burst as far as digitisation is a concern,” said Baqir.

    “We are very open, and we embrace any global mobile payment operator that wants to come to Pakistan.”

  • Hyundai’s upcoming car can run house appliances

    Hyundai’s upcoming car can run house appliances

    Electric vehicle (EV) makers are always looking for ways to increase the appeal of their potential buyers by increasing the novelty and utility of their cars.

    The latest example is of Hyundai’s Ioniq 5. One of its commercials shows a group of happy and energetic individuals on a camping trip enjoying activities like working out, cooking meals, and watching TV, with all their electronic appliances connected to the Ioniq 5.

    Ioniq 5 can give 3.5 Kilowatt (KW) of power to run appliances like refrigerator, treadmill or run a stove.

    Hyundai aims to seek the attention of young people and they are trying to catch up with the EV pioneers like Tesla and the Volkswagen Audi Group (VAG), among others.

    Hyundai claims to be the first automaker that has developed a car capable of both power consumption and power supply features.

    To meet the competition, General Motor Company (GMC), Tesla and Rivian will also add this feature to their upcoming cars.

    Hyundai has also added the option to add solar power to the car, and it will give an additional 1,300 Kilometer (KM) range to travel.

    Pakistanis often argue that such developments are of no relevance to our market, but bear in mind that the normalisation of EVs across the globe is inevitable, which is why Pakistan’s goal should be to promote EVs in a positive light to facilitate a paradigm shift in Pakistan’s growing automotive market.

  • Inflation and other troubles: 73% Pakistanis believe country headed in wrong direction

    A recent survey by IPSOS Pakistan has revealed that nearly 73 per cent people believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

    At least 1,000 people from all over the country participated in the latest survey that was conducted during the third week of March.

    Inflation has become the biggest issue for Pakistanis, as two-thirds of survey participants described the current economic situation as bad with increasing skepticism about any betterment in their conditions.

    Nearly 23 per cent found nothing wrong in the policies of the incumbent government while around 70 per cent expressed concern.

    Some 38 per cent of the participants believed there wouldn’t be any improvement in economic conditions in the next six months while 29 per cent viewed the same time period as one during which good news on the economic front will be here.

    33 percent maintained their moderate perspective on this.

    Inflation and unemployment were among the greatest concerns of the people in almost all parts of the country.

  • High hopes for Pakistan with aim to start local manufacturing of Sputnik V vaccine

    High hopes for Pakistan with aim to start local manufacturing of Sputnik V vaccine

    Pakistan is all set to start the local manufacturing the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V in collaboration with Russia in the coming months.

    Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, during a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart on Wednesday, said Pakistan was looking forward to Russian collaboration for the local production of the Sputnik V vaccine.

    The Russian FM said his government had provided 50,000 doses to Pakistan and intended to provide more than 150,000 doses in the coming weeks.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had arrived on Tuesday for a two-day visit in Islamabad, where he was received by Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

    FM Lavrov also expressed satisfaction over an increase in bilateral trade that reached $790 million over the last year.

    Earlier, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had approved the emergency use of the Russian vaccine.

    Two doses of it are currently being administered across private facilities in major cities for around Rs13,000.

    It has an efficacy rate of over 91%.

  • Sarwar says cabinet ‘only listens to businessmen’ as PTI ministers attack own govt

    Sarwar says cabinet ‘only listens to businessmen’ as PTI ministers attack own govt

    Federal Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan has accused the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led cabinet of “only listening to businessmen” while paying no heed to its own members.

    As per the details, the minister attacked his own government during a meeting of the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Agriculture. He, however, wasn’t the only one expressing concerns as Fehmida Mirza also pointed out high prices of agricultural inputs and low rate of output.

    Expressing his dissatisfaction with the government’s policies, Sarwar, the aviation minister said that within the past two and a half they had not been able to do anything for the agricultural sector. Mirza, the inter-provincial coordination minister, said that no relief had been given to growers.

    However, Finance Minister Hammad Azhar and Food Security Minister Fakhar Imam defended the government policies.

    According to The Express Tribune, Azhar said that the price of DAP fertiliser had been increased because of the hike in international price, adding that increasing support price of wheat would affect the flour price.

    The meeting was chaired by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, which was also attended by Usman Dar, Shandana Gulzar and others. Gulzar informed the committee that the government would initiate ‘Kamyab Kisan’ programme.

    “We could not give any relief to the agricultural sector. The government gave relief to industry and services but not to agriculture. The voice of the people for sectors other than agricultural is more powerful,” Sarwar lamented.

    “We are importing wheat but the government is not ready to give anything to its own growers. Imported wheat costs Rs2,400 [pre 40 kilogrammes] but we’re are giving Rs1,800 to the growers [in the shape of support price],” he told the committee.

    After the meeting, Qaiser said that the stance of Ghulam Sarwar in the meeting was his personal viewpoint.