Month: August 2019

  • Rupee gains 10 paisas on improved inflows

    Rupee gains 10 paisas on improved inflows

    KARACHI: The Pak Rupee gained 10 paisas against dollar on Tuesday owing to improved inflows of export receipts and workers remittances.

    The rupee ended Rs157.26 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs157.36 in interbank foreign exchange market.

    Currency experts said that the inflows from export receipts and worker remittances kept the market sentiments high. They also said that the demand for import payment was also low due to higher duty and tax regime.

    The foreign currency market was initiated in the range of Rs157.30 and Rs157.35. The market recorded day high of Rs157.45 and low of Rs157.24 and closed at Rs157.26.

    The exchange rate in open market also witnessed appreciation in the rupee value. The buying and selling of dollar was recorded at Rs157.00/Rs157.50 from previous day’s closing of Rs157.10/Rs157.60 in cash ready market.

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  • OGDCL discovers huge gas reserves in Khyber PakhtoonKhwa

    OGDCL discovers huge gas reserves in Khyber PakhtoonKhwa

    KARACHI: Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) on Tuesday announced huge amount of gas discovery and condensate from exploratory well at Kohat, Khyber PakhtoonKhwa.

    In a notification to Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and London Stock Exchange Plc., the company said that the joint venture of Kohat E.L. comprising OGDCL as operator (50 percent), Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL) (33.33 percent) and Saif Energy Limited (SEL) (16.67) percent, has discovered gas and condensate from its exploratory efforts at Well Togh-01, which is located in district Kohat, Khyber PakhtoonKhwa Province.

    Togh Well#01 was drilled and tested using OGDCL’s in house expertise in consultation with Kohat Joint Ventures MPCL and Saif Energy. “The well was drilled down to the depth of 3200 meters. The well was tested at the rate of 12.7 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) gas, 240BPD condensate through choke size 32/64” at well head flowing pressure 2478 Pounds per Squre Inch (Psi) from Lumshiwal formation.

    The company said that the discovery of Togh Well # 01 is the result of aggressive exploration strategy adopted by Kohat the Joint Venture. It has opened a new avenue and would add to the hydrocarbon reserves base of the OGDCL, Joint Venture partners and of the country.

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  • FBR to launch audit of withholding agents

    FBR to launch audit of withholding agents

    KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday initiated a program of skill development of its officials to conduct system audit of withholding agents.

    A statement said that under the dynamic leadership of Syed Shabbar Zaidi, Chairman, FBR, a new initiative had been taken up by Faheem-ul-Haq, Director General (Withholding) and launched by Dr. Aftab Imam, Chief Commissioner, Corporate Regional Tax Office, Karachi.

    This initiative comprises the skill development of officers for system audit of withholding agents to monitor and improve the collection and deposition of withholding tax.

    The field officers of all eight field formations of Sindh and Balochistan i.e. Corporate RTO Karachi, Large Taxpayers Units I & II, RTO II & III Karachi, RTO Hyderabad, Quetta and Sukkur; are being trained into the system audit of withholding agents by a renowned chartered accountant.

  • FBR to make easy procedure for government employees to file returns

    FBR to make easy procedure for government employees to file returns

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday said it will make easy procedure for government employees to file their annual income tax returns.

    Briefing the Standing Committee of the Senate on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, the FBR officials said that they were working on the project of making procedure easy for government employees to make them filers and would complete in a week.

    Meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, and Economic Affairs was held today on August 26, under the chairmanship of Senator Farooq H. Naeeq at parliament house.

    The chairman committee recommended that FBR officials get this work done in next week and give presentation before the committee.

    Member custom operation DR. Jawad told the committee about decision of closure of container liner service that FBR hasn’t yet decided to close this service.

    Fiber optic work is also in process, it has become operational, and it has some issues which are under consideration.

    Senator Musadiq Malik said that this issue is not from FBR rather it’s from Commercial enterprises.

    So committee recommended calling secretary maritime affairs in the next meeting to loop up it on with detail.

    In the meeting, Maternity and Paternity leave bill 2018 by Senator Qurat ul Ann Marri, province wise details of Ministry of finance and its sub ordinate departments working under it by Senator Mir Kabir Ahmed, public petition by Muhammad Irfan regarding making a simple and understandable procedure for a government employee to become a filer and matter regarding decision for closure of regular container liner KGS service and Gawadar port were discussed.

    Senator Qurat ul Ann Marri briefed the committee about her bill, but Senator Musadiq was of the view that there are some contradictions in the bill and things need to be made clear.

    In Bill, it is requested that at the first three children birth; parents will get paid leave but not at the birth of 4th one, Nevertheless, it is discriminatory behavior with the 4th one.

    Furthermore, Senator Anwar ul haq Kakar said that with increasing span of leave one will not get the salary which is out of question.

    On the birth of child, one needs money too. Special secretary finance told them that on paternity leave, one gets 48 leaves with pay annually, one can avail from them. Chairman committee recommended that Ministry of law and Ministry of finance should prepare another drat of this bill within 15 days in the supervision of and collaboration with Senator Qurat ul Ann Marri and Senator Dr Musadiq Malik.

    Regarding province wise details of Ministry of finance and its sub ordinate departments working under it Senator Mir Kabir Ahmed said according to the documents provided appointments according to provincial quota are different in the Ministry of Finance and its sub ordinate departments.

    No officer is ever recruited on bigger posts from Baluchistan and in different departments posts are vacant. Chairman committee recommended it’d be better to call Advisor to Ministry of Finance and Secretary Establishment division in the next meeting to look up this matter in detail.

    Senator Musadiq Malik recommended providing other provinces details quota wise as well in next meeting.

    The meeting was chaired by Farooq H. Naeeq and was attended by Senator Mushahid Ullah khan, Musadiq malik, Mohsin Aziz, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, Qurat ul Ann Marri and Mir Kabir Ahmed, special secretary Finance Division Umar Hamid khan, Member custom operation FBR Dr. Jawad Agha, Chairman ECP Amir khan, Executive vice president NBP and others senior officials.

  • Draft income tax return form for salaried persons for tax year 2019

    Draft income tax return form for salaried persons for tax year 2019

    KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued draft income tax return forms for salaried persons to be filed for tax year 2019.

    The last date for filing income tax return for salaried persons for tax year 2019 is September 30, 2019.

    The FBR issued the following draft return form for salaried individuals as issued through SRO 951(I)/2019 dated August 23, 2019. The tax authority will issue the final form after taking feedback from the stakeholders.

  • IR officers participate in ‘tax management system for Pakistan’ in China

    IR officers participate in ‘tax management system for Pakistan’ in China

    ISLAMABAD: A nine-member team of Inland Revenue (IR) officers is participating in tax system management for Pakistan starting from Monday (August 26, 2019) in China.

    Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday issued no objection certificate (NOC) to the officers to the proceeding abroad to participate in bilateral seminar 2019 (14 days) on Tax System Management for Pakistan’ starting from August 26, 2019 in China.

    The following officers are participating in the seminar:

    01. Muhammad Ayaz, Commissioner-IR, Regional Tax Office, Peshawar.

    02. Muhammad Tariq Arbab, Director, Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation, IR, Peshawar.

    03. Tariq Javed, Second Secretary, FBR, Islamabad.

    04. Abid Hussain Gulshan, Deputy Commissioner-IR, RTO, Multan.

    05. Muhammad Junaid Murtaza, Second Secretary, FBR, Islamabad.

    06. Ms. Saqiba Manan, Deputy Commissioner-IR, Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU)-II, Karachi.

    07. Syeda Lubna Shah, Assistant Commissioner-IR, RTO, Lahore.

    08. Ms. Shahida Nazir, Assistant Commissioner-IR, Corporate RTO, Karachi.

    09. Ms. Aqsa Ali, Assistant Commissioenr-IR-RTO-II, Karachi.

  • Stock market witnesses bearish sentiments

    Stock market witnesses bearish sentiments

    KARACHI: The stock market witnessed bearish sentiments on Monday after significant gains during the last week.

    The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 30,521 points as against 31,350 points showing a decline of 829 points.

    Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that start of the rollover week marked the return of pain for investors.

    Market ended the session at a bearish note with an intraday slide of 939 points.

    Selling pressure was observed across the board, with major pressure in E&P, Cement, Power and Steel sectors.

    Crude oil prices hinted a decline, which triggered the selling in E&P Stocks. LOTCHEM announced financial results today, and posted a hefty bottom line, resulting in largest volumes on the bourse with price gains, which were kept in check by overall slide in market.

    Prime Minister is also scheduled to address the nation in the evening, which also hinted a tough tone on Pakistan-India confrontation, although the major drive behind today’s sell-off appears more of a short-covering strategy by short sellers and should subside in the coming sessions.

    Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (-208 points), Banks (-142 points), Fertilizer (-118 points), Cement (-89 points) and O&GMCs (-64 points).

    Volumes declined significantly from 230.7 million shares to 122.1 million shares (-47 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 47 percent to reach US$ 24.1 million as against US$ 45.8 million.

    Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include LOTCHEM, BOP, MLCF, KEL and PAEL, which formed 36 percent of total volumes.

    Stocks that contributed positively include PAKT (+29 points), BAFL (+3 points), FATIMA (+2 points), GSKCH (+2 points) and LOTCHEM (+2 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include OGDC (-84 points), PPL (-70 points), ENGRO (-68 points), LUCK (-48 points) and HUBC (-46 points).

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  • Rupee gains six paisas amid higher dollar demand

    Rupee gains six paisas amid higher dollar demand

    KARACHI: The Pak Rupee gained six paisas against dollar on Monday amid demand for corporate and import payments.

    The rupee ended Rs157.36 to the dollar from last Friday’s closing of Rs157.42 in interbank foreign exchange market.

    Currency dealers said that the local unit was under pressure earlier in the day due to higher demand for dollar in the foreign currency market. They said that the greenback demand was high because market was opened after weekly holidays.

    The foreign currency market was initiated in the range of Rs157.60 and Rs157.70. The market recorded day high of Rs157.65 and low of Rs159.30 and closed at Rs157.36.

    The exchange rate in open market also witnessed appreciation in rupee value. The buying and selling of dollar was recorded at Rs157.10/Rs159.60 from last Friday’s closing of Rs157.30/Rs157.80 in cash ready market.

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  • FBR revises additional customs duty on components for motor vehicles

    FBR revises additional customs duty on components for motor vehicles

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has revised additional customs duty on import of components for motor vehicles.

    The FBR issued SRO 936 (I)/2019 dated August 19, 2019 to amend the SRO 693(I)2006 dated July 01, 2006.

    The FBR amended Appendix-I of SRO 693(I)/2006 related to import of components for motor vehicles.

    As per SRO 693(I)/2006 the additional customs duty at 15 percent was imposed on goods classifiable under tariff headings of the First Schedule to the Customs Act, 1969, as specified in Appendix I to the notification.

    Download:

    SRO 936(I)/2019

    SRO 693(I)/2006

  • Total number of SECP registered companies increases to 102,864

    Total number of SECP registered companies increases to 102,864

    ISLAMABAD: The total number of registered companies with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has increased to 102,864 by end of July 2019, said a statement on Saturday.

    The SECP said that in July it registered 1,525 new companies. As compared to the corresponding month of last financial year, it represents a growth of 41 percent raising the number of total registered companies to 1,02,864.

    The massive increase is the result of series of recent reform measures undertaken by the SECP.

    Around 71 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, while around 25 percent were registered as single member companies.

    Four percent were registered as public unlisted companies, not for profit associations, foreign companies and Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) whereas 96 percent of these companies were registered by using online facility including applications received from overseas subscribers through eService and around 49 percent of these companies were registered on same day.

    The SECP has also upgraded its browser’s compatibility and now in addition to Internet Explorer, other browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge, Safari and Opera can be used for name reservation and company incorporation process.

    The trading sector took the lead and 266 new companies are registered in this sector, construction with 186, Information Technology with 183, Services sector with 177, Tourism with 69, Real Estate Development with 59, Food and Beverages with 56, Engineering with 44, Education with 43, Marketing and Advertisement with 40, Textile with 39, Corporate Agricultural Farming with 36, Pharmaceutical with 30, Healthcare with 29, Transport with 28, Chemical with 27, Mining and quarrying with 24, Communication with 21, Auto and Allied with 18, Fuel and Energy with 16, Logging with 14, Broadcasting and Telecasting with 12, Paper & Board, and Power Generation with 11 each and 86 companies were registered in other sectors.

    Foreign investment has been reported in 58 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from, Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Korea South, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sweden,, Turkey, the UAE the UK and the US.

    The highest numbers of companies, i.e. 603 were registered in Company Registration Office-Islamabad, followed by 378 and 283 companies registered in Lahore and Karachi respectively.

    The Company Registration Offices in Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta, and Sukkur registered, 100, 76, 41, 27, 10 and 7 companies, respectively.