Day: March 5, 2021

Grant of disparity reduction allowance at 25pc for government employees notified

ISLAMABAD: The finance division has notified grant of disparity reduction allowance at 25 percent of the basic pay to the civil employees in BS-1-19 of the federal government.

Sources on Friday said that the finance division had issued a notification for the approval of the Federal Government for grant of Disparity Reduction Allowance at 25percent of the basic pay of Basic Pay Scales 2017 with effect from March 01, 2021.

This allowance shall be admissible to civil employees in BPS 1-19 of the Federal Government, (including employees of the Federal Secretariat and attached departments), who have never been allowed additional allowance/allowances equal to or more than 100 percent of the basic pay (whether frozen or not) or performance allowance subject to the following conditions:

a) This Allowance will not be admissible to the employees of the organizations as mentioned in Annexure-I and those employees who are drawing additional allowance/allowances equal to or more than 100 percent of the basic pay whether frozen or otherwise);

b) This allowance will be frozen at the level drawn on March 01, 2021

c) This Allowance will be subject to Income Tax;

d) This Allowance will be admissible during leave and entire period of L.P.R. except during extra ordinary leave;

e) This Allowance will not be treated as part of emoluments for the purpose of calculation of Pension/Gratuity and recovery of House Rent;

f) This Allowance will not be admissible to the employees during the tenure of their posting/deputation abroad;

g) This Allowance will be admissible to the employees on their repatriation from posting/deputation abroad at the rate and amount which would have been admissible to them, had they not been posted abroad;

h) This Allowance will be admissible during the period of suspension;

i) The term “Basic Pay” will also include the amount of Personal Pay granted on account of annual increment (s) beyond the maximum of the existing pay scales.

Annexure-I

Following is the List of organizations/Employees drawing Extra Allowances

1. President/ PM Secretariat

2. Federal Board of Revenue

3. Health personnel/ Health establishments

4. National Accountability Bureau (NAB)

5. All Superior Courts

6. Law & Justice Commission of Pakistan

7. Islamabad Capital Territory Police

8. National Highways & Motorways Police

9. Islamabad Model Traffic Police

10. Airport Security Force

11. Civil Armed Forces

12. Intelligence Bureau

13. Inter Services Intelligence

14. Federal Investigation Agency

15. National Highways & Motorways Police

16. National Assembly

17. Senate Secretariat

18. Parliamentary Affairs Division

19. District Population Welfare Office

20. Clinical Regional Training Institute

21. Directorate General of Special Education

22. National Institute of Rehabilitative Medicines

23. National Institute of Special Education

24. Rehabilitation Centre for Children with Development Disorders Islamabad

25. National Council for Rehabilitation

26. National Braille Press Islamabad

27. Rehabilitation Unit Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment of Disabled persons Islamabad

28. National Mobility & Independence Training Centre

29. National Training Centre for Special Persons G-9/2 Islamabad

30. Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment of Disabled persons SC-1 Islamabad

31. Provision of Hostel facilities at NSEC VHC Islamabad

32. National Special Education Centre for PHC Islamabad

33. National Special Education Centre

34. National Library & Resource Centre Islamabad

35. National Trust for the Disabled

36. Common Unit to Manage Global Fund

37. Federal Services Tribunal

38. Central Health Establishment and its Field Offices

39. Federal Tax Ombudsman

40. Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue

41. Customs Excise and Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal

42. Environmental Protection Tribunal

43. Accountability Courts

44. Special Judge (Customs Taxation & Anti Smuggling)

45. Special Judge (Central)

46. Banking Courts

47. Special Courts (Control of Narcotics Substance)

48. Special Court (Offence in Banks)

49. Special Court (Anti Terrorism)

50. Competition Appellate Tribunal

51. Intellectual Property Tribunal

52. Drug Courts

53. Anti Dumping Appellate Tribunal

54. Senior Civil Judge West Islamabad

55. Senior Civil Judge East Islamabad

56. District & Session Judge West Islamabad

57. District & Session Judge East Islamabad

58. The civilian employees of PAF who are drawing additional allowance as allowed vide Finance Division’s U.O. note bearing No.F.1(7)lmp/2009-705, dated 19-12-2012.

March 5, 2021
PYMA demands cut in duty rates on polyester yarn import

KARACHI: Pakistan Yarn Merchant Association (PYMA) has demanded the government of immediate reduction in duty rates on import of polyester filament yarn to ensure bring down prices of the commodity.

Hanif Lakhany, Senior Vice Chairman PYMA and Vice Chairman Farhan Ashrafi urged the government to immediately remove additional customs duty at two percent and regulatory duty at 2.5 percent on the import of polyester filament yarn as an interim relief.

Furthermore, they demanded a review of tariff structure on the entire polyester chain to make our user industry consisting mostly of small and medium size enterprises competitive to enhance our exports.

They termed catastrophic for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) over not reviewing the tariff structure of polyester chain and not allowing immediate duty-free import of cotton, polyester cotton and polyester filament yarn by the government, and feared that the textile industry would be ruined if it was not possible to supply raw materials at reasonable prices as per the production demand.

PYMA office bearers met with a delegation of polyester yarn users, industrialists, importers and traders, raising their concerns, they said that the government is aware that cotton production has declined this year, while the skyrocketing prices of polyester filament yarn, the main raw material for the textile industry, have pushed up production costs to an unbearable level

“As a result of higher prices in the local market, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have no choice but close their units, if nothing is done to alleviate the pain of super high prices, it may be posing a grave danger to the fragile export growth”, they pointed out

PYMA office bearers said that we really appreciate that the government is seriously considering measures to tackle the escalation of cotton yarn prices but there is also a need to review the current tariff regime of the Polyester Chain, if we really want Pakistan to be truly competitive in the international market.

“Polyester filament yarn is subjected to 11% customs duty, 2% additional customs duty and 2.5% regulatory duty in addition to Antidumping duty ranging between 3-11% despite of the fact that local manufacturers of polyester filament can only meet less than one third demand of the user industry”, they added, these local manufacturers of polyester yarn enjoy tremendous tariff protection at the cost of very large small and medium size enterprises to the detriment of our stated public policy to make our value added industry competitive.

March 5, 2021
APTMA disapproves Indian cotton import

KARACHI: All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has strongly disapproved any plan to import cotton yarn from India.

In a statement issued on Friday, Asif Inam, Chairman – APTMA Sindh-Balochistan Region expressed deep concern on drastic decline in price of fine counts of yarn by Rs. 10,000/- per bag in the Faisalabad Yarn Market which is in expectation of massive tax evasion plan by individuals in anticipation of permission be allowed to import cotton yarn from India through Wagah Border.

Asif Inam in a statement issued to the press and electronic media has said that industry has procured cotton at very high prices and they are not in a position to sustain these losses.

He said that about 90 percent of yarn produced in the country is available for the domestic market and there is no shortage of yarn in the country.

Asif Inam urged the government not to allow import of cotton yarn from India as India has imposed restriction on import of all Pakistani products.

To restrain import of yarn from India and support the local industry he demanded the government to withdraw levy of sales tax on zero rated sector so that the genuine industry may flourish and be able to provide yarn at affordable prices.

He also urged the government to save domestic industry from total closure, DLTL should not be provided on those entire textile products produced using imported materials which are either produced or manufactured in Pakistan as all such textile items which are produced using imported materials are incurring losses to the national exchequers because most of the exporters falls under the category of Fixed Tax Regime whereas they are also availing DLTL facility ranging between 2 percent to 4 percent and subsidized Export Refinance Facility which is provided from the revenue earned by the government from Pakistani Taxpayers. DLTL and ERF should only be provided on the products produced using domestic yarn and fabrics, he added.

March 5, 2021
Stock market gains 559 points on PM vote of confidence

KARACHI: The stock market gained 559 points on Friday as investors posed confidence on the prime minister’s decision to take vote of confidence from the National Assembly.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 45,837 points as against previous day’s close of 45,279 points, showing an increase of 559 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market partially recovered the points lost in yesterday’s trading.

Investors largely banked on Prime Minister’s Vote of Confidence, scheduled for tomorrow, which was further aided by release of SPI (Sensitive Price Index) data that showed a surprise jump of 15 percent YoY, prompting an active buying in Banks.

About 5 percent jump in international crude oil prices also favoured otherwise lethargic E&P sector, which also contributed to the surge in Index. Among scrips, ANL topped the volumes with 29.2 million shares, followed by TRG (21.1 million) and PRL (17.8 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+135 points), E&P (+132 points), Cement (+59 points), Fertilizer (+52 points) and Power (+51 points).

Volumes declined from 441 million shares to 317.2 million shares (-28 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 25 percent to reach US$ 101.5 million as against US$ 135.1 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include ANL, TRG, PRL, GGL and FFBL, which formed 32 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include POL (+46 points), OGDC (+42 points), HBL (+37 points), LUCK (+35 points) and TRG (+33 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include COLG (-15 points), PAKT (-12 points), AICL (-2 points), PSX (-2 points) and PSMC (-2 points).

March 5, 2021
Prime Minister directs authorities to focus on flying invoices

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday directed the authorities to curb the menace of flying invoices to prevent tax losses.

The prime minister chaired a meeting on tax reforms and said the objective of tax reform was to make the tax code simple, plug existing loopholes in the system and reduce discretionary powers of tax collectors and tax practitioners, according to state media.

He called for structuring and reforming the tax regime to facilitate the common man and businesses to help the economy grow.

Prime Minister Imran Khan called for introducing automation to ensure transparency of the tax system.

He directed to especially focus on the issue of flying invoices.

The meeting was attended by Federal Ministers Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Asad Umar, Hammad Azhar; Advisers Abdul Razzak Dawood and Dr. Ishrat Hussain; Special Assistants Dr. Waqar Masood, Tabish Gohar and Nadeem Babar, Chairman Board of Investment and other senior officials.

March 5, 2021
Trade deficit widens by 24pc in February

ISLAMABAD: The trade deficit has been widened by 24 percent Year on Year (YoY) in February 2021 owing to increase in imports and decline in exports, according to data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.

The import bill for the month of February 2021 increased to $4.56 billion as compared with $4.16 billion in the corresponding month of the last year, showing an increase of 9.55 percent.

However, the exports fell by 4.12 percent to $2.05 billion in February 2021 when compared with $2.13 billion in the same month of the last year.

The trade deficit widened by 10.64 percent to $17.536 billion in first eight months (July – February) 2020/2021 when compared with the deficit of $15.85 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.

The imports posted 7.49 percent growth to $33.84 billion during first eight months of the current fiscal year as compared with $31.48 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.

The exports registered an increase of 4.29 percent to $16.3 billion during July – February 2020/2021 as compared with $15.63 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

March 5, 2021
Rupee gains four paisas against dollar

KARACHI: The Pak Rupee made a gain of four paisas against the dollar on Friday despite demand for import and corporate payments on last trading of the week.

The rupee ended at Rs157.12 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs157.16 in the interbank foreign exchange market.

Currency experts said that demand for the foreign currency was remained high due to upcoming two weekly holidays. However, inflows of workers’ remittances and export receipts helped the rupee to make gain.

The export receipts have increased by 4.3 percent to $16.3 billion during first eight months (July – February) 2020/2021 as compared with $15.6 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, according to data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.

March 5, 2021
Habib Bank pays Rs320.79 million as penalties

KARACHI: Habib Bank Limited (HBL) has paid an amount of Rs320.79 million as penalty for various regulatory violations during the year ended December 31, 2020.

According to financial results released by the bank for the year ended December 31, 2020, the bank paid the amount of Rs320.79 million as penalties for violation of various regulations.

However, the payment of penal amount reduced by 33 percent when compared with Rs480.56 million paid in the preceding year.

According to details the bank paid an amount of Rs296 million against fine imposed by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for the year ended December 31, 2020. The latest amount of monetary penalty has been reduced when compared with Rs476 million that was imposed by the SBP on the bank during the preceding year.

The fall in penal amount shows the bank has strengthened inter controls related to know your customer (KYC) and transactions violating other regulatory provisions.

The bank has also paid penal amount to the tune of Rs24.37 million as fine to other regulatory bodies during the year ended December 31, 2020 as compared with an amount of Rs3.9 million paid during the preceding year.

March 5, 2021
Standard Chartered Bank declares 18pc fall in annual profit

KARACHI: Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) has declared annual profit of Rs13.13 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020, which was reduced by 18 percent when compared with Rs16 billion in the preceding year.

According to financial results shared with the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, the fall in annual profit may be attributed to significant increase in provisioning and write offs during the year.

The provisioning and write offs of the banks increased to Rs4.9 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020 when compared with Rs16.81 million in the preceding year.

According to the financial results of the bank, an amount of Rs4.77 billion was cost under the head of provision against loans and advances for the year ended December 31, 2020.

Net Interest Income of the bank slightly increased to Rs28.14 billion for the year under review as compared with Rs27.78 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

Total income of the bank during the year also posted nominal growth to Rs40.93 billion when compared with Rs39 billion in the preceding year.

Total expenses of the bank also increased slightly to Rs12.38 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020 when compared with Rs27.18 billion in the preceding year.

The bank paid Rs10.48 billion as tax for the year ended December 31, 2020 as compared with Rs11.18 billion in the preceding year.

Earnings per share of the bank fell to Rs3.39 as compared with EPS of Rs4.14 in the last year.

March 5, 2021
Foreign exchange reserves increase to $20.133 billion

KARACHI – The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has reported a positive development in the country’s economic indicators as the liquid foreign exchange reserves increased by $91 million to reach $20.133 billion by the week ending February 26, 2021.
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March 5, 2021