Sales
Tax Act 1990 and Income Tax Ordinance 2005 should be comprehensively amended to
repeal the draconian laws governing the tax policy and curtail the unbridled
discretionary powers to the officers of Inland Revenue. To achieve revenue
targets and offset the deficit, loopholes and avenues for evasion must be
closed. Exemptions to be withdrawn and other incentive regimes should be
replaced with Export Voucher Scheme. Restore law and order in Karachi, the
largest city of Pakistan, which contributes 68 percent of tax
revenue. Karachi has become a battleground for all kinds of political and ethnic
forces from all over Pakistan. There has to be a national consensus on measures
to be taken to extricate this once thriving city from shackles of violence,
crime, arms and various mafias. Political patronage of mafias has to be
ended.....
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PAGE TOP STORIES
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS
& PAGE SPECIAL REPORTS
.
.
INTERVIEW WITH MUHAMMAD LUKMAN, CEO NATIONAL CLEARING COMPANY
OF PAKISTAN LTD
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NCCPL is the leading institution of Pakistan's capital
market, which provides efficient, effective and reliable clearing & settlement
services at par with international best practices and international standards
ensuring growth and prosperity of the capital market. The company was
incorporated in July 2001 and administers National Clearing & Settlement
Services (NCSS), a fully automated electronic settlement system. In addition to
clearing and settlement of all trades and transactions of the capital market,
the company also provides other value-added services like Cross Exchange
Nettings, Broker to Broker Delivery System (BTB), Institutional Delivery System
(IDS), Financial Institutions Margining System (FIRMS), Universal Identification
Number System (UIS), Margin Trading System (MTS), Margin Financing System (MFS),
Securities, Lending Borrowing (SLB) System amongst others.......
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WILL IMF HAS ANY ROLE IN BUDGET MAKING?
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Historically, International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and other multilateral lenders have been playing a key role in the
preparation of federal as well as provincial governments’ budget. Their voice
becomes louder particularly when Pakistan faces precarious financial position.
Ironically, the country once faces serious balance of payments crisis. The good
news is that the IMF has agreed in principal to extend $5 billion under Extended
Financing Facility (EFF). The bad news is that the Fund may impose more
stringent conditions and many of these be incorporated in the federal budget for
FY14.....
Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) was
established on 8 July 1982 as a Qatari shareholding company by the Emiri Decree
No. 45 of 1982 in order to provide banking services in accordance with the
provisions of Shariah and as per the regulations of Qatar Central Bank (QCB). It
commenced operations with one branch in July 1983 and expanded upto 8 branches
by 2005. The bank carries out banking services, investment and financing
activities through various Islamic modes of financing, such as Sukuk/Securitization.
It had the first Islamic bank through QIB. Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB)
was established in the 90s. Masraf Al Rayan was established a few years ago......
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FINANCE
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WHAT HITS THE GROWTH OF CONSUMER FINANCING IN PAKISTAN
.
Consumer
financing products include credit cards, personal loans, auto loans and housing
mortgage. It not only contributes towards facilitating the life patterns of
consumers, but it also proves to be a source of improvement for the image of
banks. Consumer financing has emerged out as one of most prolific aspects of
banking in Pakistan. Banking sector witnessed unprecedented growth after 2001
due to low interest rate and product innovation in consumer financing. A need
is, however, felt to strengthen the regulatory mechanism for strengthening the
consumer financing sector in the country....
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COVER STORY
.
WHAT DO WE WANT FROM ‘NEW PAKISTAN’
.
New leadership is expected to bring change, a shift from the existing position
of Pakistan. Each government must put people first where politicians make every
effort to promote law and order issues, social justice and equality among the
people. What the country needs is governance, which so far is only practiced in
organizations rather than the government. Governance incorporates the sense that
needs of the people are met including basic necessities of life. The challenge
for any government is to maintain economic stability for betterment of lives of
its people. The previous government did little for the economy and the
people....
Rolls-Royce Plc has signed a contract
to deliver drillship propulsion systems to the world's largest drilling company
Transocean. This latest contract marks the 100th drillship to feature
Rolls-Royce propulsion equipment.
In recent months Rolls-Royce has won
orders to supply propulsion systems for seven new drillships totaling close to
£100 million, including options, from a variety of customers including
Transocean. These ships will be built in the Samsung, Daewoo and Hyundai
shipyards in Korea.......
Elections are around the corner. Major
political parties have come up with manifestos and raising catchy slogans.
However, there is a persistent and prevailing uncertainty .The blame partly goes
to previous federal and provincial governments as they did announce the election
date in the second week of March and aggravated the uncertainty as people of
Pakistan kept on guessing whether there will be elections this year or not......
The education system of Pakistan is
based on unequal lines. Medium of education is different in both, public and
private sector. This creates a sort of disparity among people, dividing them
into two segments. Such a distraught infrastructure is a basic cause of high
illiteracy rate in Pakistan, which is 58 percent and high drop out rates in
rural areas and public school. The regional disparity is also a major cause.......
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PAGE REPORT
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A
PROMISING YOUNG PAKISTANI
.
Ahmed Ali achieved the highest marks in
the professional exam worldwide for paper F9, with a score of 94, Ahmed Ali's
Top Tip for Paper F9: "On the face of it, the paper may seem to have a high
amount of calculation in it, but nevertheless, it is important to understand the
underlying concepts behind the arithmetic. A lot of topics in the syllabus are
interconnected and it is important to understand the basis for these topics to
be able to score a decent mark. The examiner does not only want us to able to
produce a set of numbers, but also be able to evaluate them in the context of
the prevailing environment."..
SRINAGAR: Reserve Bank Governor D
Subbarao has said the central bank will soon introduce on a pilot basis plastic
currency notes as they have longer shelf-life.
"We are trying to introduce plastic
currency. We hope to introduce it on trial basis and if that succeeds it will be
replicated in the entire country," he said during an interactive session with
students of Business School of Kashmir University here....
.
IN THE NEWS
The Tariff
Differential Subsidy (TDS) on electricity of around Rs 3.5 per unit provided by
the government is causing a huge strain on the country's revenues as the
government is charging an average rate of Rs 9.0 per unit from consumers as
against its average purchase price of Rs 12.50 per unit.
This has been causing a huge strain on the government's revenues thus augmenting
the budgetary deficit further. The government disbursed a power subsidy of Rs
464 billion during fiscal year 2011-12 as against budgeted target of Rs 147
billion...
.
GULF NEWS
Dubai: A recent
report on economic impact of Expo 2020 by Oxford Economics
shows that Dubai Expo 2020 would support over 277,000 jobs.
The report said a total of 77,149 jobs would be created
between 2013-2021, 40 per cent of which would be within the
travel and tourism sector.
The report estimates that 90 per cent of the projected 277,149
employment opportunities would occur from 2018 to 2021 with
the ramp up to Expo 2020 and the demand generated by the 25
million expected visitors.....
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ANNOUNCEMENT
Karachi - Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive, commented, "Standard Chartered has
continued to deliver a resilient performance despite the impact of extraordinary
monetary policies in the West and Japan on liquidity conditions across Asia and
thus on margins. We remain focused on continuing to grow the business, building
on our long-standing relationships with our clients and customers, on
maintaining our strong balance sheet, and on keeping a firm grip on costs and
risks. We are in the right markets and remain confident in the outlook for our
business.".....
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WEEKLY COMMODITY RATES
(US$)
PRICES
THIS WEEK
PRICES
LAST WEEK
%CHG
CRUDE OIL
104.04
102.62
1.38
HEATING OIL
291.43
285
2.26
COTTON
87.52
86.27
1.45
SUGAR #11
17.47
17.6
-0.74
COPPER
332.4
317.4
4.73
GOLD
1,471.20
1,475.30
-0.28
SILVER
24.03
24.03
0.00
COCOA
2,391.00
2,414.00
-0.95
CORN
631
661.75
-4.65
.
.
SPORTS
.
PAKISTAN SPORTS IN A SELF-DESTRUCTIVE DOWNWARD SPIRAL
.
Pakistan sports enjoyed a golden era of
success, when it won almost all the titles at stake in the world in squash,
hockey and athletics and later on in cricket in between 1956 to 1986.
However, during the last ten years what
ever reputation Pakistan had built due to the performances of its sportsmen and
sportswomen across the world, was lost. The country is unfortunately known as
the nation of cheats in cricket when three young cricketers Salman Butt,
Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were jailed for proven crime of taking money to
bowl no balls in a Test at Lord’s against host England two years ago.....
"We've not had one Republican president
in 34 years balance the budget. You can't trust right-wing Republicans with your
money. You ought to hire somebody who has balanced a budget. I'm much more
conservative with money than George Bush is."
HOWARD DEAN
"These people who are always briskly
doing something and as busy as waltzing mice, they have little, sharp, staccato
ideas, such as: "I see where I can make an annual cut of $3.47 in my meat
budget." But they have no slow, big ideas."
BRENDA UELAND
"A budget tells us what we can't
afford, but it doesn't keep us from buying it."
WILLIAM FEATHER
"The budget evolved from a management
tool into an obstacle to management."
MANAGEMENT
"Democrats were quick to point out that
President Bush's budget creates a 1 trillion dollar deficit. The White House
quickly responded with 'Hey, look over there, it's Saddam Hussein.'"
CRAIG KILBORN
"The defense budget is more than a
piggy bank for people who want to get busy beating swords into pork barrels"
GEORGE BUSH
.
K
I
B
O
R
R
A
T
E
As On May 8, 2013
TENOR
BID
OFFER
1 Week
8.41
8.91
2 Week
8.73
9.23
1 Month
8.97
9.47
3 Month
9.29
9.54
6 Month
9.33
9.58
9 Month
9.38
9.88
1 Year
9.42
9.92
2 Year
9.87
10.37
3 Year
10.36
10.86
.
CAPITAL MARKET
.
STOCK MARKET
ROUND UP
.
Bank Alfalah (BAFL) has posted a profit
after tax of Rs1,011 million for 1QCY13, registering a decline of 16% YoY.
Analysts attribute such negativity to have emanated from the topline, where the
bank's interest income fell by 5% YoY. This coupled with the 4% YoY increase in
interest expense resulted in an 18% YoY decline in net interest income slipping
to Rs3,824 million for 1QCY13.....
.
.
.
CURRENCY CONVERTER
.
.
COVER STORY
.
PEOPLE ATTACH HIGH HOPES WITH BUDGET 2013-14
.
While the country is facing manifold
challenges, economic issues would be on top of agenda of the new elected
government that would take charge as a result of May 11, 2013 general elections.
Although preparations of Budget 2013-14
are underway yet depleting foreign reservoirs’, high inflation, fiscal deficit,
debt burden and rising unemployment are major issues to be worked out.
On one side, people are facing host of issues particularly long hours
electricity load shedding but they have expectations from the elected government
that it would provide relief to the masses in the budget 2013-14....
