Business

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Tuesday approved Rs4.70 per unit reduction in fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for electricity used by K-Electric consumers in September. Once the approval is formally notified in a couple of days, the KE would be required to refund about Rs7.78 billion to consumers through adjustment in November’s bill. The decision was reached …

Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended losses during early trade on Wednesday, with analysts attributing the downward trend to worries of political instability following the announcement of the PTI’s long march scheduled to begin on Friday. The benchmark KSE-100 index lost 632.39 points, or 1.5 per cent, to reach 41,557.64 points at 11:17am. Head of Research at Intermarket …

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s energy minister on Tuesday blasted the release of emergency oil stocks as an attempt to “manipulate markets”, the latest apparent salvo in a spat with Washington over oil production. “People are depleting their emergency stocks, had depleted it, used it as a mechanism to manipulate markets while its profound purpose was to mitigate shortage of supply,” Prince …

KARACHI: Kot Addu Power Company Ltd (Kapco) said on Monday it has submitted a tariff petition to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) for a reference generation tariff. The independent power producer (IPP) made the announcement as its original power purchase agreement (PPA) of 1996 completed its term on Oct 24. As a result, the operator of a multi-fuel–powered …

ISLAMABAD: The Nat­ional Electric Power Regu­latory Authority (Nepra) on Monday allowed Rs12.68 per unit increase in power rates for K-Electric under quarterly tariff adjustment (QTA) for the period — April to June FY2021-22, with a net additional revenue of about Rs56bn to the Karachi-based private utility. The decision is unlikely to affect consumers in Karachi because of uniform tariff policy …

ISLAMABAD: Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday signed an agreement with Pakistan to provide a $1.5 billion loan for budgetary support and help flood-related rehabilitation and reconstruction activities. The loan agreement was signed by ADB’s Country Director Yong Ye and Secretary of Economic Affairs Division (EAD) Kazim Niaz. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, EAD Minister Ayaz Sadiq …

ISLAMABAD: Though Pakistan will have to seek another loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help recover from the recent catastrophic floods in the country, a report of Oxfam released on Monday recommends the country to avail the ‘Loss and Damage Finance Facility’ proposed by G77 plus China at the Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26). If the Loss …

The Pakistani rupee (PKR) gained over Re1 against the US dollar during morning trade in the interbank market on Tuesday. According to rates issued by the Forex Association of Pakistan, the local currency was changing hands at Rs219.30 per dollar at 1pm, an appreciation of Rs1.11 or 0.5 per cent over yesterday’s close of Rs220.41. Analysts attributed this change to …

Did you hear about the recent milk price hike? Milk sellers have increased prices from Rs118 to Rs200 per litre in Karachi. Mind you that the price increase has come ahead of winter. So you can imagine how much pricier milk could be in next summer. Before this, prices of tandoori roti and chapati rose Rs2-5. According to a Dawn …

Politics seems to have gotten the better of the wheat market in Pakistan. Political preferences have been ruling pricing policy for the last two months, and of late, even the position of stocks is interpreted through a political prism. The rulers, impervious to market consequences and beholden to their party politics, are playing an acrimonious blame game that is adding …