Business

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will soon ink a comprehensive agreement on Customs cooperation and assistance to promote bilateral trade and control illicit drug trafficking between the two countries. The proposed agreement text — which has already approved by the Pakistani side — has been shared with Saudi Arabian Customs authorities for approval from the government. The issue was raised …

HYDERABAD: Industrialists of Hyderabad and Jamshoro districts are caught between a rock and a hard place as the deadline of March 1 for disconnection of gas supply to captive power plants (CPPs) of export industry nears. A decision to this effect was announced by the federal government in January. Mian Tauqir Tariq is one such industrialist who doesn’t have grid …

ISLAMABAD: Weekly inflation for the combined group in the period ended on Feb 25 increased by 2.41 per cent on the back of an uptick in prices of essential food items, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Friday. The week-on-week change is the highest in the current month. Since January, an upward movement was noted …

KARACHI: Repatriation of profit and dividends rose 8.35 per cent to $1.025 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to $946m in the same period last year, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reported on Friday. The outflow included repatriation of profits on foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment (FPI). On FPI a …

se KARACHI: The stock market remained in search of direction on Friday as the euphoria witnessed on Thursday was all but gone. The KSE-100 index fell by 100.61 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 45,865.02. The major selling came from ‘’brokers proprietary trading’’ in the sum of $1m. Insurance companies also decided to take profit ahead of the weekend. Cherry-picking …

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) surpassed its collection target by Rs13 billion to Rs2.911 trillion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, showed provisional data released by the tax authorities on Friday. It was the second consecutive month that the tax collection surpassed it projection. The revenue collection increased by nine per cent during July-February …

ISLAMABAD: Amid 78pc decline in total foreign investment, the Ministry of Finance on Friday raised expectations about economic recovery during the current fiscal year based on improved signs in first seven months. In its Monthly Economic Update & Outlook, the ministry reported that total foreign investment in July-January period amounted to $755 million against $3.438bn of comparable period last year, …

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday decided to keep Pakistan on its ‘grey list’, with the country’s status set to be reviewed next at an extraordinary plenary session in June 2021. The announcement was made by FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer at a press briefing from Paris on the outcomes of the FATF’s four-day virtual plenary meeting. “Pakistan remains under …

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday reduced the rate of return on equity (ROE) from 16 to 12 per cent for four public sector LNG-based power projects in Punjab with total generation capacity of about 4,900MW. Two of these projects of 2,453MW combined generation capacity are owned by the federal government under the umbrella of National …

KARACHI: Exchange companies on Thursday were allowed to cover their risks against exports proceeds through forward sale transaction with banks up to five working days, the State Bank said in a circular. To facilitate exchange companies in managing exchange rate risks associated with the realisation of export proceeds against export of permissible foreign currency notes, it has been decided that …