Day: July 4, 2020

Nausheen Amjad removed from post of FBR chairperson

ISLAMABAD: The government on Saturday removed the chairperson of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Ms. Nausheen Javaid Amjad and assigned look after charge to another senior officer of Pakistan Customs Service (PCS) with immediate effect.

Ms. Nausheen Javaid Amjad was assigned the post of FBR chairperson on April 08, 2020 after the resignation of Syed Muhammad Shabbar Zaidi, who served as FBR Chairman from private sector during May 10, 2019 to April 08, 2020.

Sources said that the removal of Ms. Nausheen was linked to the tax profile of wife of Justice Qazi Faiz Essa. The sources said that Ms. Nausheen had not compromised the integrity of tax department.

The Establishment Division on Saturday issued a notification and assigned additional charge of the post of FBR Chairman to Muhammad Javed Ghani, a BS-22 officer of PCS, presently posted as Member, FBR, for a period of three months or till the posting /appointment of a regular incumbent, whichever is earlier, with immediate effect.

July 4, 2020
Weekly Review: lower COVID cases to boost investors confidence

KARACHI: The equity market likely to stay positive in the coming week owing to fall in corona cases during past couple of days.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market to remain positive in the upcoming week.

With COVID-19 cases reducing on daily basis along with higher recovery rate we expect investor confidence to improve.

Given further inflow of funds, SBP’s foreign reserves are expected to swell up, which will stabilize Pak Rupee/USD parity.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is currently trading at a PER of 7.4x (2020) compared to Asia Pac regional average of 12.9x and while offering DY of 6.4 percent versus 2.8 percent offered by the region.

The market commenced on a positive note this week amid rally in OMC scrips due to rise in petroleum prices last week, followed by increase in international oil prices (leading to upward movement in E&P scrips).

Furthermore, approval of Federal Budget 2020-21 in National Assembly, monetary funding worth USD 500 million from World Bank and loan from Chinese Banks of USD 1.3 billion led to higher investor sentiment.

Moreover, inflation for June 2020 of 8.59 percent remained in line with expectations. Besides this, urea offtake surging to 76 percent MoM in June 2020 added fuel to the sentiment.

Additionally, foreign reserves of SBP jumped up to USD 11.23 billion given monetary funds from multilateral institutions last week, after which PKR/USD parity settled at PKR 166.21.

The market settled at 35,051 points, gaining 1,112 points (up by 3.3 percent) WoW.

Sector-wise positive contributions came from i) Commercial (176 point), ii) Cements (170 point), iii) Oil & Gas Exploration Companies (140 point), iv) Fertilizer (136 point) and v) Technology & Communication (85 point). However, sector-wise negative contribution came from i) Automobile Parts & Accessories (7 point) and ii) Textile Spinning (4 point). Scrip-wise positive contributions were led by LUCK (107 point), OGDC (81 point), MCB (72 point), TRG (59 point) and PSO (50 point).

Foreign selling continued this week clocking-in at USD 20.5mn compared to a net sell of USD 9.9mn last week. Selling was witnessed in Commercial Banks (USD 8.8 million) and E&P (USD 3.9 8.8 million). On the domestic front, major buying was reported by Insurance Companies (USD 17.5 8.8 million) and Companies (USD 9.6 8.8 million).

Average Volumes settled at 251 8.8 million shares (up by 42 percent WoW) while average value traded clocked-in at USD 51 8.8 million (up by 45 percent WoW).

July 4, 2020
K-Electric seeks stakeholders meeting to explain power generation

KARACHI: K-Electric, the power supply and generation utility, has requested Sindh governor for a meeting of stakeholders to discuss matters pertaining to power generation.

The power utility is under serious criticism for continuous breakdown of power in Karachi, the commercial hub of the country. The residents and business community equally suffered with unscheduled loadshedding for hours.

The power utility has its challenges and wanted to explain. In a letter to Sindh governor, the KSE has requested a meeting with all relevant stakeholders to discuss matters pertaining to power generation, its planning and matter related to financial management, the KE said in a tweet massage a few minutes ago while filing this new item at 1:22AM Saturday.

Furthermore, KE wants to present the steps taken as safety measures for the upcoming Monsoon season along with highlighting the city wide hazardous issues pertaining to power theft, illegal street light switches, and encroachment.

Work has been initiated to receive additional power from National Grid upon confirmation last month. Also, work is already in progress for the 900MW power plant for which the first unit will start generation from 2021.

July 4, 2020
FBR extends date for retail outlet integration up to August 31

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday extended date for retailers to integrate their Point of Sale (POS) up to August 31, 2020.

The last date for integrating the POS for Tier-1 retailers was June 30, 2020.

The FBR said that only those retailers can integrate their POS by August 31 who submit their intention to RTOs/LTUs by August 20, 2020.

FBR sources said that the decision had been taken due to lockdown in the many parts of the country in order to prevent spread of coronavirus the business activities had become stand still.

They said that big outlets and shopping plazas are observing closure during the lockdown and many of those big retailers would not able to make compliance.

The deadline was expired on December 15, 2019 which was given by the FBR to tier-1 retailers to integrate their POSs with the FBR online system. However, the date was extended in order to give opportunity to big retailers to make compliance.

All tier-1 retailers are required to integrate all their POSs with FBR’s computerized system.

Tier-1 retailer is defined in section 2(43A) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, to be a person who falls in any of the following categories:

(a) a retailer operating as a unit of a national or international chain of stores;

(b) a retailer operating in an air-conditioned shopping mall, plaza or centre, excluding kiosks;

(c) a retailer whose cumulative electricity bill during the immediately preceding twelve consecutive months exceeds Rupees twelve hundred thousand;

(d) a wholesaler-cum-retailer, engaged in bulk import and supply of consumer goods on wholesale basis to the retailers as well as on retail basis to the general body of the consumers; and

(e) a retailer, whose shop measures one thousand square feet in area or more.

July 4, 2020