ISLAMABAD: The World Bank-funded $400 million project is aimed at creating a sustainable increase in the country’s tax revenue, raising the tax-to-GDP ratio to 17 per cent and widening the tax net to 3.5m active taxpayers by 2023-24. A World Bank team led by Vice-President for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions (EFI) Ceyla Pazarbasioglu on Wednesday informed Finance Adviser Hafeez …

ISLAMABAD: The parliamentarians on Wednesday opposed government’s proposed move to centralise sales tax on services on the grounds of it being against the constitution and asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to relax economic targets set under the $6 billion extended fund facility that was adversely affecting the country’s businesses and the people. The IMF mission, however, showed its satisfaction …

ISLAMABAD: The Eco­no­mic Coordination Comm­ittee (ECC) of the cabinet on Wednesday approved rescheduling of about Rs167 billion power sector debt. A meeting of the ECC, presided over by PM’s adviser on finance and revenue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh increased sale margins of oil marketing companies (OMCs) and dealers and ordered release of 1,107 imported vehicles imp­ounded at ports for months. …

Inflation increased by 1.82 percent in the month of October compared to September of this year. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) inflation remained at 11.04 percent for the month of October 2019. From July to October, the inflation rate was recorded at 10.32 percent. In October, 14 items of everyday use became more expensive while six products …

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks paused Tuesday in record range on rising hopes over US-China trade talks as US services sector data topped expectations. The Dow mustered a narrow record for a second day in a row, while the S&P 500 fell slightly and the Nasdaq was flat. Hopes that the United States and China will soon seal “phase one” …

WASHINGTON: Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on Wednesday set a January 15 target for resolving an intensifying feud over a massive dam being constructed on Africa´s Nile River, which has raised fears of conflict over scarce water. US President Donald Trump agreed to mediate among the three nations in Washington at the request of Egypt, which fears that the Ethiopian-built dam …

MEXICO CITY: Archaeologists said Wednesday they have made the largest-ever discovery of mammoth remains: a trove of 800 bones from at least 14 of the extinct giants found in central Mexico. Moreover, they believe they have made the first-ever find of a mammoth trap set by humans, who would have used it to capture the huge herbivores more than 14,000 …

The State Department of the US has invited applications for Critical Language Scholarship Program summer 2020. The CLS program is part of the American government initiative to expand the number of US citizens studying and mastering foreign languages that are critical to their national security and prosperity. It provides overseas foreign language instruction and culture immersion experiences for American undergraduate …

Billionaire Indian fugitive Nirav Modi has threatened to kill himself if his extradition to India is ordered by courts in the UK on request of the Indian government. The jailed diamond dealer, 49, appeared at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday with his barrister Hugo Keith QC to apply for the bail but Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot refused him bail …

Ouagadougou: An attack on a convoy transporting local employees of Canadian mining company Semafo in Burkina Faso left 37 people dead and 60 wounded on Wednesday, a regional governor said. It was the third deadly attack suffered by Semafo in 15 months in the West African country, which is battling a militants revolt that has claimed hundreds of lives. Saidou …