No default in next 3 years, says
Dar
Federal Finance
Minister Ishaq Dar
said on Thursday
that the government was making
its best efforts to stabilize the exchange rate regime, and asked banks and
exchange companies to
help strengthen the
local currency as well as
the economy. While the
minister appreciated exchange companies role to reduce dollar
price gap between the open market and inter bank, he did not offer any details
to stop steep fall of local currency in the inter bank market. He was hopeful
that loans from IMF would remove any fear of default that would ultimately help
local currency to get strength. The finance minister reportedly asked foreign
banks for dollar-based loans and offered a lucrative rate of LIBOR plus 5pc per
annum.
NAB directs Ogra chief to recover
Rs13b from SNGPL
The
National Accountability Bureau
(NAB) has directed
the incumbent OGRA Chairman Saeed
Ahmed Khan through a notice under section 18(d) & 33 (c)
of National Accountability Ordinance
(NAO) 1999, to
recover an amount of Rs 13
billion of public money from the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL).
The NAB also directed him to provide certified copies of all the decisions
of the competent
authority who appointed him
as Chairman OGRA. The NAB
noticed that despite
the vacation of
stay orders from the Lahore High Court (LHC) the OGRA has
failed to recover the Rs 13 billion of public money from the SNGPL, even after
the lapse of seven months passed the
orders of LHC. The
investigation bureau directed
the incumbent Chairman OGRA to recover the said amount through issuance
of revised notifications within two working days.
NBP, UBank sign MoU
Retirees can now draw their pensions
from 10,000 outlets of Ufone and ordinary
citizens can even
pay income tax
from their mobile
phones after U Microfinance
Bank Limited (UBank)
and National Bank
of Pakistan (NBP) signed an agreement
which aims “to
change the way people
will perform banking transactions”. A memorandum of understanding (MoU)
was signed between NBP and UBank on Thursday in this regard. Under the MoU, NBP will
provide personal and
corporate solutions through branchless banking services to its customers across the
country. Punjab govt part of MoU for coal-based projects worth $5 bnA ceremony
for the signing of MoUs between federal, Punjab governments, China National Power and Q-Investment Qatar
for over 6,600
MW coal-based projects worth more
than $5 billion was held on Thursday. Under the tripartite agreement, 10
plants of 660 megawatt
each will be
set up at Gadani. The projects
of 3000 megawatt will
be completed within
first 30 months while the remaining
projects of 3600 megawatt will be executed in the next two and a half years. The
chief minister said this agreement between Pakistan, Qatar and China will prove
to be a milestone in energy
sector and all
out efforts will be
made for the early
completion of this project for
power generation from imported coal.
Lawrencepur Woolen and Textile
Mills suspends operations
Dawood Lawrencepur Limited (DLL), the
pioneers of textile composite units in Pakistan, has announced to suspend
opera-tions of Lawrencepur Woolen and Textile Mills with immediate effect. DLL
is one of the few woolen and worsted fabric spin-ning and
weaving units in the
region. Lawrencepur woolen and
worsted fabric, the most prestigious
names in French and Italian
fashion industry, will now operate under licence. “Due to fall in demand and its
adverse impact on the worsted fabric industry in Pakistan, the board of
directors of the company has decided to suspend operations of Lawrencepur Woolen
and Textile Mills with
immediate effect,” Hafsa
Shamsie, company secretary
of DLL, said.
“However, the ‘Lawrencepur’
brand will continue to operate under the licence,” she added. The
decision is in line with the company’s strategic intent to focus on the renewable
energy business, development
of which is vital
for the country’s economic growth.
The board has also ap-proved a voluntary separation scheme for
the management and non-management employees of Lawrencepur Woolen and Textile
Mills.
Bike assemblers body calls for new
auto sector policy
Pakistan’s new government should take
on board all stakeholders and market players while formulating new policies
related to the auto
sector, the Association of Pakistan Motorcycle
Assemblers (APMA) said. This
was particularly important
if the government seriously want
to generate revenues, APMA spokesman Muhammad Sabir Shaikh. APMA comprises of
companies who are specifically involved in the
assembly of Chinese made motor bikes. Speaking in this context, Shaikh
said that the finance minister should also look into the issues of incorrect
declaration, under invoicing and smuggling. He added that if the government
makes the necessary changes in the policy of the auto sector, it will earn revenues
of more than Rs.1,000 crores annually. Shaikh said this amount was being wasted
at the moment due to of incorrect
policies. He went on to say that
the retailers are
not against the
imposition of sales tax, but
actually the manufacturers, importers,
smugglers are against this move.
In the last 10 years, there was huge evasion and under invoicing of imported
parts due to non registration in sales tax regime by auto sector dealers all
over Pakistan. Shaikh said all zero rated imports must be fixed at minimum five
per cent customs duty. All the Input Output Ratio Certificates (IORCs), which
are valid up to June 30, 2013 should not be re-validated and one customs duty
on imported parts and one customs duty on CBU imports should be fixed at 25 per
cent
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