CCP says tea smuggling under APTTA causing huge loss to national exchequer on July 2, 2019The government must take firm action to curb the illegal tea trade as smuggling is the biggest threat faced by the domestic tea industry, causing loss of millions of rupees to the government and forcing legal importers out of business, said the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP). The CCP, in its report ‘Competition Assessment Study […]
Pakistan gears up for 5G revolution on June 27, 2019The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has unveiled its plans for the Fifth Generation (5G) Wireless Networks’ public trials as the regulator on Wednesday issued policy directive on “Test and Development of Future Technologies (5G) Wireless Networks In Pakistan”. In this connection, the PTA has invited applications from operators while entities registered with the Securities and […]
KE privatisation did not yield positive results: World Bank on June 26, 2019A World Bank (WB) study has revealed that the privatisation of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) has not yielded the results that were the rationale for the strategic sale of the entity. “Privatisation of Karachi Electric proved to be highly controversial and is still being contested in the courts more than a decade later,” says […]
Budget FY 2019-20 brings more grief for real estate sector on June 12, 2019The State Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar in his Federal Budget for FY19-20 speech, proposed to increase immovable properties’ rates of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) by taking it closer to about 85% of actual market value. Also, he proposed that persons purchasing immovable property of fair market value greater than rupees 5 million in […]
Govt-telcos conflict over licence renewal may impede investment on May 25, 2019At a time when cellular operators in Pakistan are facing a challenging time, policymakers’ ‘non-serious’ attitude towards their licence renewal issue may hurt foreign investors’ confidence and lead to capital flight, sources said. Industry sources said cellular companies in Pakistan are experiencing difficult times nowadays as their average revenue per user has dropped significantly, profitability […]
SBP increases key interest rate by 150bps to 12.25% on May 21, 2019In order to address underlying inflationary pressures from higher headline/core inflation outturns, exchange rate depreciation, elevated fiscal deficit and potential adjustments in utility tariffs, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday increased the policy rate by 150 bps to 12.25% effective from May 21 (Tuesday). The SBP said inflationary pressures are likely to continue […]
Unemployment among graduates rising at alarming rate: report on April 23, 2019The overall unemployment rate in Pakistan During the past decade has increased from 5.1% to 5.7%, while the unemployment rate among graduates rose alarmingly to 16.3% in 2017-18 from 5.3% in 2006-07, reveals the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The Pakistan Employment Trends 2018 survey conducted by the PBS revealed alarming proportions as the unemployment […]
Delayed tax refunds remain biggest issue facing Pakistani taxpayers: FTO on April 18, 2019The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) office says that refund related complaints are the main issue of taxpayers in Pakistan as 59 percent of total complaints received by FTO in 2018 were related to income tax refund claims, which is more than all other categories of taxes put together. According to the FTO Annual Report – […]
Frequency Allocation Board creating roadblocks in renewal of telcos’ licenses on April 16, 2019The licenses of three telecom operators, Jazz (Warid), Telenor and Zong are expiring next month, but , the renewal process is likely to be delayed, due to inter-departmental conflicts in the government, which may cause massive loss to the exchequer. In order to expedite the matter, the PM had ordered the formulation of a Ministerial […]
Pakistan’s energy consumers were unhappy customers in 2018 on April 9, 2019The Federal Ombudsman of Pakistan reveals that power and gas distribution companies’ performance remained unsatisfactory in 2018 as 60 percent of complaints received by Ombudsman were against state-owned and private electricity/gas supply companies. According to the official data, total 70,713 complaints were received against Pakistan’s major agencies during the year 2018 by Federal Ombudsman, among […]