Business

HYDERABAD: The Sindh irrigation department and the Water and Power Develop­ment Authority (Wapda) are at loggerheads over the construction of the Rs125 billion Sindh barrage, approved by Prime Minister Imran Khan in August 2019. A couple of months back Wapda sent its inception report for a feasibility study of the project. Sindh irrigation experts responded to it and raised technical …

LAHORE: A Chinese company is investing $150 million in an industrial park on Lahore’s border with Kasur, which will house state-of-the-art fabric units, dyeing facilities and garment manufacturing units for exporting sportswear from Pakistan to the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific and other regions of the world. The project by the Shanghai-based Challenge is probably the first foreign direct investment (FDI) in …

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday announced that now the consumers will only have Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) chip and PIN compliant payment cards, which will be active right from the day issued to them for payments and online e-commerce services. The State Bank said that in order to promote digital payments, measures have been taken to …

ISLAMABAD: The electricity rates for consumers of 10 distribution companies (Discos) of ex-Wapda may go up by about 93 paisas per unit on account of monthly fuel cost adjustment for January due to higher than estimated power generation cost. The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) will take up for public hearing on Feb 25 the Discos’ petition seeking increase …

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has notified exemption of sales tax and value-added tax on import of 500,000 tonnes of sugar, as an international tender has been floated to import at least 50,000 tonnes of the commodity by Eidul Fitr. A sales tax notification (SRO215 of 2021) was issued here to exempt the whole of 17pc sales tax …

ISLAMABAD: Three new companies are set to establish manufacturing units for mobile phones after recent relaxations in withholding tax. However, the investors will have to obtain multiple approvals as both the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the Ministry of Industries and Production (MoIP) are the regulatory bodies in this regard. The government recently promulgated an ordinance abolishing WHT on locally …

ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday abolished a 10 paisa per unit surcharge on electricity and increased the price of ghee by Rs30 per kg (15 per cent) for sale at Utility Stores. The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet presided over by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh that also approved …

KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines on Thursday announced that it would start paying dues to its around 2,000 employees under the early retirement Voluntarily Separation Scheme (VSS) next week. The PIA statement came a day after the protesting employees of the airline had alleged that two former employees died of heart attack because they were under a lot of stress …

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday released details of millions of rupees of funds transferred from the United Kingdom to the party’s account this year. Releasing details of the funding, PTI’s Overseas International Chapter’s secretary Dr Abdullah Riyar said Rs88.7 million received from the UK was a “slap in the face of drummers”. He said that despite a …

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce on Thursday announced that it will register Himalayan pink salt — extracted from the Salt Range which extends along the south of the Potohar Plateau and the north of the Jhelum River — as Geographical Indications (GI). The decision was taken in a meeting with the Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) Pakistan chaired by Commerce Adviser …