Pakistan may remain on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) beyond February 2020, mainly because of its risk profile and in view of two simultaneous evaluations according to senior officials. Officials also revealed that the government recovered only Rs5.6 billion in taxes on foreign assets worth about $7.4bn (Rs1.15 trillion) of Pakistanis reported by the international
Pakistan and Russia have finally agreed to settle a 4-decade old trade dispute, with the latter agreeing to invest $8 billion. Sindh High Court dismissed the previous case as the involved parties reached an out of court agreement, paving the way for the agreement to be officially signed. Under the agreement, Russia and Pakistan will get the pending payments and Russia will go ahead with its plan of investing $8 billion in different energy projects and Pakistan Steel Mills.
The government has reduced the profit rates on various National Savings’ schemes, effective from November 1, 2019, according to a directive issued by the Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS). Profit rate on the Defence Saving Certificate have been cut by 2.33% to 10.68%, Pension Behbood’s rate has been cut by 2.28% to 12.48%, 2.04% reduction on Regular Income Certificate to 10.92%, 1.70% drop on Special Saving Certificate to 11% and on saving accounts, the rate has been slashed by 2.05% to 8.20%.
The report highlights that the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has played a key role in shrinking India’s export of cotton yarn by 38.8%. The free trade agreement (FTA) was signed in April this year. Under which, Pakistani goods worth $64 billion got duty free access to the Chinese market, large part of these goods belonged to the textile sector.
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has raised electricity prices by Rs. 1.82 per unit, due to fuel price adjustment for September 2019. Electricity consumers will be paying an additional Rs. 24 billion after this adjustment. However, K-Electric consumers will remain unaffected by NEPRA’s decision. The new tariff will be applicable for the month of Novembe
During a meeting with Minister for States & Frontier Regions and Narcotics Control Shehryar Khan Afridi, Chinese Minister showed interest in investing in the halal meat industry in Pakistan, exporting it to China and Middle Eastern countries. He vowed to showcase Pakistani products and halal food in Chinese markets. According to Afridi, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vision will benefit the underdeveloped countries.
In a recent report, the World Bank has ranked Pakistan at number six amongst the top 20 global reformers. The World Bank also acknowledged Pakistan amongst top 10 economies that improve the most on the ease of doing business after implementing regulatory reform. As per the report, for the first time Pakistan has improved 28 ranks, from 136 to 108, in one year.
Hascol Petroleum faced a massive loss in terms of earnings in the year 2019. The company earned a profit of Rs 15 billion in the same period last year faced a loss of Rs. 13.87 billion this year. The major reason for this decline was the shortage of working capital to obtain product which also lead to the decrease in company’s volume from 646,000 Metric Tons to 210,000.
The government has increased the price of petrol by Rs. 1 per liter and that of high-speed diesel (HSD) by 27-paisa for November on the recommendation of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). The revised price of petrol at Rs114.24 per litre and HSD at Rs127.41 per litre were announced through a notification issued by the Ministry of Finance. However, the price of light diesel has been decreased by Rs6.56 while that of kerosene by Rs2.39 per litre.
A day after countrywide disruption, internet services in Pakistan have been fully restored. In a statement issued on Twitter, Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) said the SMQ-4 submarine cable fault was rectified and internet services restored. Furthermore, it clarified that the “submarine cable AAE1” was not down during the outage. There were faults in two submarine cables, PTCL spokesperson Fariha Shah said.