Business

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) clarified on Sunday that the requirement of submitting a currency declaration form for inbound passengers to Pakistan was not a new development, stating that a notification in this regard had been issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) over a decade ago. “FBR has rebutted misleading information being shared in some sections of …

Oil prices fell on Monday with the global fuel demand outlook overshadowed by Covid-19 restrictions in China and the potential for further interest rate hikes in the United States and Europe. Brent crude futures dropped $1.01, or 1.1 per cent, to $91.83 a barrel by 0630 GMT, after settling 4.1pc higher on Friday. US West Texas Intermediate crude was down $1.13 …

ISLAMABAD: Financial advisers of the National Power Parks Management Company Limited (NPPMCL) — which owns and operates two LNG-fired plants with a combined capacity of around 2,500 megawatts — have asked the government to immediately finalise gas-sale and power-purchase agreements, debt recapitalisation and payment mechanism if it wanted an early sale of the two units to Qatar. The government is …

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has directed Habib Bank Limited (HBL) to pay Rs249,525 to a cook whose money was fraudulently withdrawn online from his account by swindlers. The president directed all the banks to regularly caution their customers and clients about banking scams, including banking frauds involving online fund transfers, and improve communications with their clients. He said innocent …

The rupee continued to weaken against the dollar on Monday, falling by Rs1.64 in the interbank market. The local currency closed at Rs229.82 per dollar, data shared by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed. This equates to a depreciation of 0.71 per cent. Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (Ecap) General Secretary Zafar Paracha said there were several factors behind …

KARACHI: Heavy monsoon rains and subsequent floods have opened new sales prospects for commodity traders as political parties, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), wealthy individuals and traders gear up efforts to lift rations for the flood victims. Essential commodities including pulses, rice, sugar, tea, wheat flour, powdered milk, etc are now in high demand. Other relief items also include medicines, soaps, mosquito …

ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the proposed complete deregulation of oil pricing, the petroleum dealers on Saturday threatened to go on strike across the country, saying that the new anticipated formula—that will end fixed dealer margin—is not suitable in Pakistan. Expressing dismay over the new proposal, the Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) organised a seminar here and slammed the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) …

LAHORE: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail disclosed on Saturday that “none of the friendly countries is ready to financially support Pakistan” because it “has an imbalanced economy”, caused mainly by a huge difference between imports and exports. He said the government, in a bid to bridge the gap between exports and imports, had taxed those manufacturing industries that had zero contribution …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s exports to nine regional countries posted a paltry growth of 8.57 per cent in the first month of 2022-23 from a year ago, the latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan showed. The country’s exports to Afghanistan, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Iran, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives account for a small amount of $306.274 million …

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank (WB) has estimated that more than one in three urban residents in Pakistan face unaffordable housing conditions, estimating that 38 per cent of the urban population lives in unaffordable housing. A provincial breakdown shows large differences across the two methods for urban Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where the rate of housing unaffordability almost doubles. In KP, housing …