Business

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to produce cheap electricity to provide relief to domestic consumers and industries, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday directed the authorities concerned to import coal from Afghanistan. Presiding over a meeting, the prime minister approved the import of high-quality coal from Afghanistan in rupees instead of dollars to save the country’s precious foreign exchange. “This will …

ISLAMABAD: While finalising an unprecedented Rs7.90 per unit additional fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for distribution companies (Discos) for next month, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) noted on Monday that Pakistan was left with no choice but to face loadshedding or generate electricity using expensive fuel oil. At a public hearing on a petition for a Rs7.96 per unit …

Pakistan has received combined economic and financial targets for the seventh and eighth reviews of its International Monetary Fund bailout programme, finance minister Miftah Ismail said on Tuesday. “Early this morning, the government of Pakistan has received an MEFP from the IMF for combined 7th and 8th reviews,” Ismail tweeted. A Memorandum of Economic and Finance Policy (MEFP) contains certain …

The image of National Investment Trust Limited (NIT) is of stuffy stained offices with creaky chairs occupied by overweight balding men in suits who know little about technology and care even less about customers. This does not describe NIT at all. NIT, a wholly-owned government asset management (AMC) when it was first formed in 1962, is now partly-private, partly-public with …

The real estate and construction sector uses up 43 per cent of global energy production. The energy consumed by the industries to produce myriads of building materials causes massive emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Thus, the sector becomes the biggest contributor to global warming. Since the sector is conducive to invariably increasing housing needs, the world requires a …

Balochistan’s next fiscal year’s budget evidently reflects the lack of capability of its political leadership to find consensus and make the right decisions for the citizens of the province. No wonder, the public’s trust in the leadership is consistently faltering owing to years of poor governance, lack of development, financial mismanagement and corruption. It, therefore, is no surprise to see …

Pakistan and France have signed an agreement for the suspension of loans amounting to $107 million under the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), the Economic Affairs Division said on Monday. In a press release, it said the amount, initially repayable between July and December 2021, would now be repaid over a period of six years (including a one-year grace …

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 index opened in the green on Monday, gaining over 800 points with analysts attributing the rally to expected good news from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to the PSX website, the bourse witnessed an increase of over 450 points by 9:45am. At 10:40am, the index had reached 41,734.31 points, up 683 points, …

ISLAMABAD: The coalition government has decided to introduce another fixed income tax scheme for small builders and other service providers through an amended Finance Bill 2022. The details of this scheme will be worked out later due to shortage of time for implementation, but it will be on the lines of the fixed scheme for small shopkeepers, a tax official told Dawn on …

LAHORE: Fertiliser prices have skyrocketed as a result of rupee depreciation and rising production costs, putting agriculture and food security in greater jeopardy than previously anticipated. Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) is currently being sold for between Rs11,500 and Rs12,500 per bag, according to market trends. A bag of sulphate of potash (SoP) has gone up to Rs1,600 and the muriate of …