Business

LAHORE: The supply and pricing crisis of urea continues despite the window for its application to wheat closing fast. Farmers blame continued smuggling and hoarding and the industry holds panic buying mainly responsible. There are reports from various areas of the province of long queues to purchase rationed and squeezed urea supplies by the district administration. In the open market, …

KARACHI: The dollar price may cross Rs200 with the sudden imposition of a withholding tax on exchange companies, which are getting notices to the tune of hundreds of millions of rupees from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Representatives of the exchange companies told on Wednesday they are getting notices from the FBR on non-payment of the withholding tax that …

ISLAMABAD: As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has finally called its executive board’s meeting on January 28, Pakistan started the process for launching of over $1 billion Islamic Sukuk Bond, with unchanged B3 (stable) rating by Moody’s Investor Service. The expected inflow of more than $2bn over the next couple of weeks through two transactions — IMF disbursements and Sukuk …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s non-textile exports grew 23 per cent year-on-year to $5.75 billion in the first half of the current fiscal year owing to the partial revival of international orders and the government support schemes. Overall growth in the non-textile sector is mainly led by the value-added sectors. The non-textile sectors have yet to receive full orders to pre-Covid levels, showed …

ISLAMABAD: The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said the net employment losses in Asia and the Pacific region amounted to about 58 million in 2020 owing to the pandemic while 39m of the workers exited the labour force. Across Asia and the Pacific, the total working time in 2020 fell by the equivalent of over 130m full-time jobs, according to …

LAHORE: Taro Techn­ologies, a Lahore-based emerging Fintech startup, has secured $3.5 million in pre-seed funding through a combination of strategic partnerships and angel investors to launch a Buy-Now, Pay-Later (BNPL) venture in Pakistan. As part of their pre-seed round, the company has partnered with Dubai-based Cashew Payments — a BNPL leader in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — to accelerate …

KARACHI: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) increased 20 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2021-22, reflecting an improvement in the investment environment. In the first half of the current fiscal year, FDI amounted to $1.05 billion against the inflow of $879.7 million in the same period of 2020-21. The inflow in December 2021 jumped 29pc year-on-year to $218.7m, data …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s oil and food import bill surged 73 per cent to $14.97 billion in the July-December period compared to $8.67bn a year ago owing to higher international prices and massive depreciation of the rupee. The share of these products in the total import bill also rose to 37pc during the six-month period, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of …

ISLAMABAD: Textile and clothing exports grew 26 per cent year-on-year to $9.38 billion in the first half of this fiscal year, mainly on the back of a massive depreciation in the rupee’s value and a steady rise in global demand. The year-on-year growth in December was recorded at 15.89pc, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on …

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to increase base electricity rates by up to 95 paisa per unit and one-slab benefit to ‘unprotected consumers’ with effect from February 1 to meet commitments made with the international lending agencies. The decision would reduce power sector subsidy by Rs20 billion and envisages increasing average base tariff to Rs18.75 per unit for all distribution …