Business

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Thursday approved a 67 per cent increase in the natural gas tariff with effect from Feb 1, apparently to meet the revenue requirement of the gas utilities targeted for the current year. According to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the cabinet meeting presided over by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar approved all decisions of the Economic …

KARACHI: Bears took over the trading floor of the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday after Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf nominated candidates for prime minister and Punjab chief minister as it also started contacts with different parties for the formation of coalition governments. Also, the Pakistan Peoples Party’s reluctance to join Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet despite announcing support to elect him as prime minister drew strong reactions …

ISLAMABAD: With system losses touching a massive 14.5 per cent, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Thursday notified up to 9pc reduction in the sale price of Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) for SSGCL and SNGPL for the current month, effective Feb 1, owing to lower international prices. This is the second month in a row that RLNG …

LONDON: Two major world economies — Japan and the UK — have fallen into a recession in the second half of 2023. While Japan’s ‘unexpected fall comes off the back of a contracting gross domestic product (GDP) — its economy also shrank by 3.3pc in the previous quarter, the UK’s decline comes ahead of this year’s expected election for PM …

ISLAMABAD: Interim Finance Minister Shamshad Akhtar has voiced concern with the slow pace in implementing the decision to connect professional services online with the tax machinery in eight major cities across the country. More than three years have gone and the FBR has still not completely implemented the decision in urban cities to raise income tax from professional service providers …

Bears dominated the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday as shares witnessed a spike in selling pressure, with analysts attributing the losses to “ambiguity on the political landscape”. According to the PSX website, the KSE-100 index lost 936.97, or 1.51 per cent, to stand at 61,216.87 at 2:52pm. It finally closed at 61,020.05, down 1133.79 or 1.82pc from the previous close …

ISLAMABAD: Under pressure to meet the Feb 15 deadline of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the caretaker government on Wednesday allowed another up to 45 per cent increase in the natural gas tariff with effect from Feb 1 to meet revenue requirement of the gas utilities targeted for the current year. The decision was taken at a meeting of the …

ISLAMABAD: A foreign bank disclosed before the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue on Wednesday that an employee was found involved in fraudulent actions, while the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said its forensic report had established the involvement of bank staff in the embezzlement of Rs410 million from the accounts of certain overseas Pakistanis. The additional director of FIA …

KARACHI: Prominent figures from the industrial sector have raised concerns over the economic challenges brought forth by the caretaker government’s policies. In a press statement issued on Wednesday, these industry leaders said the policies of the caretaker government, whose main responsibility was to organise elections, had brought in severe economic crises, the slowdown in industrial production and an alarming declining …

ISLAMABAD The utilisation of funds for development schemes of the former parliamentarians appeared to taper off on the eve of elections yet remained the second-largest expenditure portfolio in the Rs190 billion overall disbursements for a struggling Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in the first seven months of 2023-24. The latest data on development expenditure released by the Planning Commission, special …