In a communication sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the bank said that to further earlier disclosure made on September 14, 2021, in respect of in-principle approval from State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in addition to the approval from Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) for the closure of Bank Al Habib Limited, Seychelles branch operations.
Now, the Central Bank of Seychelles has informed the bank that it had revoked the banking license of the Seychelles Branch Operations after completion of all the compliance requirements by the bank.
“This decision is in line with the bank’s strategy, and it will not have any material impact on the overall operating and financial position of the bank,” it added.
The disclosure material information is in accordance with Section 96 and 131 of Securities Act, 2015 and clause 5.6.1 (a) of the Rule Book of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
KARACHI: The US dollar hit all-time high at Rs176.50 during intraday trading on Friday but later reversed to close at Rs175.46 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
The Pak Rupee (PKR) closed at Rs175.46 to the dollar as against the previous day’s closing of Rs174.98 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
Currency experts said that the rupee remained under pressure due to the outflow of the foreign currency in the shape of external debt repayment.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $766 million to $22.774 billion due a week. According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the country’s foreign exchange reserves were at $22.774 billion by week ended November 19, 2021 as compared with $23.55 billion by the week ended November 12, 2021.
They further said that the large imports are a major threat to the rupee stability. The import bill registered 65 per cent growth to $25.1 billion during first four months of the current fiscal year as compared with $15.17 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.
The Pak Rupee hit the all-time low of Rs175.73 to the dollar on November 12, 2021 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
The US dollar reached an unprecedented high of Rs176.50 during intraday trading at the interbank foreign exchange market on Friday, signaling a further decline in the value of the Pakistani Rupee (PKR).
KARACHI: Following are the open market exchange rates of foreign currencies in Pak Rupee (PKR) in Pakistan on November 26, 2021 (The rates are updated at 11:30 AM Pakistan Standard Time):
Currency
Buying
Selling
Australian Dollar (AUD)
125.10
126.60
Bahrain Dinar (BHD)
386.85
388.60
Canadian Dollar (CAD)
137.60
139.10
China Yuan (CNY)
23.75
23.90
Danish Krone (DNK)
23.50
23.80
Euro (EUR)
196.60
199.10
Hong Kong Dollar (HKD)
16.75
17.00
Indian Rupee (INR)
2.03
2.10
Japanese Yen (JPY)
1.41
1.44
Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD)
481.80
484.30
Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
36.50
36.85
NewZealand $ (NZD)
96.55
97.25
Norwegians Krone (NOK)
17.50
17.75
Omani Riyal (OMR)
392.75
394.79
Qatari Riyal (QAR)
39.90
40.50
Saudi Riyal (SAR)
46.75
47.25
Singapore Dollar (SGD)
126.60
128.10
Swedish Korona (SEK)
18.50
18.75
Swiss Franc (CHF)
159.90
160.80
Thai Bhat (THB)
4.80
4.90
U.A.E Dirham (AED)
48.35
48.85
UK Pound Sterling (GBP)
234.10
237.10
US Dollar (USD)
177.10
178.35
Disclaimer: Team PKRevenue.com provides the available rates of the open market, which are subject to change every hour. Team PKRevenue.com provides the available exchange rates at the time of posting the story. So the team is not responsible for any inaccuracy of the data.
ISLAMABAD: The talks between the government and Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association ended in a success which has led to the strike being called off.
“The talks between the government and petroleum dealers association have led to the strike being called off,” Hammad Azhar, Minister of Energy said in a Tweet on Thursday night.
The talks between the Govt and petroleum dealers association has led to the strike being called off. The govt will notify 0.99 paisa increase in their margins after due approval from cabinet as per existing summary. After 6 months we will move to % system up to 4.4% margin.
Earlier, the petroleum dealers association observed a shutdown strike on Thursday for raising profit margin on sale of petroleum products.
Most of the fuel pumps were remained closed during the day. Even those pumps owned by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) which announced to open their outlets, were also closed for the shortage of stock.
The energy minister in his Tweet said that the government will notify 0.99 paisa increase in their margins after due approval from the cabinet as per the existing summary. “After six months we will move to % (per cent) system up to 4.4 per cent margin,” he added.
Earlier, PPDA Chairman Abdul Sami Khan said petroleum dealers had been in a difficult position due to the high cost of business and low margins. He said that the government guarantees a margin of only 2 per cent on sales of fuel oil in the face of rising electricity tariffs.
“We demand the government to cancel our petrol pumps licenses,” he said, adding that nearly 50 per cent of the petrol pumps will close down permanently with license cancellation as no one will reapply for acquisition.
“Immediate increase on ex-depot price in dealers’ margin for HSD and MS without burdening common people and without increasing prices of petroleum products, absorbing dealers’ margin increase by reducing Sales Tax and PDL,” he demanded.
A day earlier, Gas & Oil Pakistan Company Limited (GO), with the largest retail outlet network of 1,000 outlets in the private sector and the largest network of company-owned, company-operated (COCO) outlets in Pakistan assured the customers that all its outlets would remain open and continue to function normally.
“GO remains firm in its commitment to fulfilling the fueling needs of the nation come what may,” the company said in a tweet.
Shell Pakistan also announced to open its outlet to serve the nation. “Shell Pakistan announces that they will not participate in the strike on November 25, 2021,” according to the company. All the company-operated retail stations will be opened to serve the customers, it added.
Hascol, another OMC, assured that all its owned and company-operated (COCO) stations, including all service stations on the M2 Lahore-Islamabad Motorway will remain open and ready to serve them as per routine.
Pakistan State Oil (PSO) also showed its commitment that all COCO stations will remain open nationwide and continue to function normally. “PSO is committed to serving the nation during such challenging time,” it said.
ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia has allowed direct entry from Pakistan with effect from December 01, 2021, according to a report.
The nationals of Pakistan are now eligible for direct entry without spending 14-day quarantine in a third country.
According to Saudi Press Agency report quoting an official source at the ministry of interior, the directive will come into force from next Wednesday, December 01, 2021.
Saudi Arabia along with Pakistan also allowed direct entry from Indonesia, India, and Egypt. Brazil and Vietnam are the other countries that are included in the new list of countries allowed direct entry into the Kingdom.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in its annual report 2020/2021 on State of Pakistan’s Economy released a day earlier said there was a need to expand revenue by aligning the property values with market prices.
In this regard, FBR has revised the valuation of immovable property rates in July 2019 for various cities. “There is a need to ensure continuity in this exercise to remove the disparity between the property values and market rates,” the SBP said.
The issues of widening fiscal imbalance and declining tax-to-GDP ratio Pakistan, the government has initiated tax policy reforms in past few years. These efforts were further streamlined under the IMF-Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program in 2019/2020.
In overall terms, the ongoing tax policy reforms in the country, like the elimination of preferential general sales tax rates, phasing out income tax exemptions, using third party data sources, etc., are in line with the best practices identified in the literature. However, there is a need to widen the scope of these efforts to ensure a sustained increase in tax base,.
Corporate incomes tax reforms. To improve the base for direct taxes, Pakistan introduced wide-ranging reforms in CIT in March 2021. These included: (i) withdrawal of tax exemptions on 36 categories; (ii) reversal of reduced tax rates to normal rates on various categories; and (iii) conversion of investment and income tax exemptions to tax credits, for instance, persons engaged in coal mining, start-ups certified by Pakistan Software Export Board, export of computer software or IT exports etc. These measures are likely to add around Rs 140 billion in the overall FBR taxes in 2021/2022. To give further support to revenues, excess profit taxes may be imposed on selected sectors on the basis of profitability.
Personal income taxes: PITs in Pakistan are collected through progressive rates on various income slabs. The tax rates on salaried and non-salaried individuals were also increased in FY20 and were kept unchanged in 2020/2021. The revenue in this category may be propped up by increasing the tax rates on the highest slabs or by the introduction of a temporary surcharge.
Consumption taxes: FBR has introduced various reforms aiming at Simplification of GST, and elimination of preferential rates including (i) replacing GST zero-rating regime on five export-oriented sectors (textile, leather, carpets, sports goods, and surgical goods) with normal tax rates in 2019/2020; (ii) eliminating preferential GST rates for sectors like sugar and steel in 2019/2020; (iii) extending GST to e-commerce sales transactions through Finance Act 2021. This step was taken after the surge in sales through e-commerce platforms during the lockdowns. Although currently, the contribution of this head in the total collection is negligible, this is expected to grow with expanding size of digital transactions. The tax base can be further enhanced by curtailing exemptions and improving tax design. Specifically, the tax incentives given during Covid can be gradually rolled back once the economic recovery takes hold.
Capital income taxes: To minimize tax evasion, FBR has initiated the use of third-party data sources through Maloomat Tax-Ray from September 2020. This system collects third-party information (such as banks) for individuals’ assets and withholding deductions, which help in determining accurate tax liabilities. Moreover, it also facilitates the tax-payer in evaluating the accurate tax liability while filing the tax returns.
KARACHI: Builders and developers have announced to stop construction work on all their projects from Friday, November 26, 2021 against the declaration of null and void to approved projects.
“Despite the approvals of the buildings and projects from all the government agencies they stand null and void,” he said.
He urged the government to tell the builders and developers, who are the final authority from the get approval.
Shekhani said that ABAD is against the illegal encroachments and illegal constructions. “Illegal projects if constructed it is a duty of government agencies to check and give NoC,” he added.
ABAD is following approvals strictly. But despite approvals and getting permission the moves to shatter the confidence of the people, he added.
“We are backstabbing the overseas Pakistani and local investors who have invested millions of rupees,” he said. Confidence of Overseas and local investors would be perturbed, he added.
From Friday work at projects in Karachi, Hyderabad and other cities will be halted, he announced.
Slowly the work in other parts of the countries will also be stopped, Shekhani added.
KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have declined by $776 million during a week owing to external debt repayment, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves fell to $22.774 billion by the week ended November 19, 2021 as compared with $23.55 billion a week ago.
The reserves held by the SBP fell by $691 million to $16.254 billion by the week ended November 19, 2021 as compared with $16.945 billion a week ago. The central bank attributed the decline in its reserves to external debt repayment.
The foreign exchange reserves held by the commercial banks also came down by $85 million to $6.52 billion as compared with $6.605 billion a week ago.
ISLAMABAD: President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi has rejected an appeal filed by MCB Bank against a decision by the Banking Mohtasib (Ombudsman) in a case where a banking customer lost huge money due to fraudulent activity.
President Dr Arif Alvi has upheld the decision of the Banking Mohtasib directing a private bank to credit the lost amount of Rs 800,000 (eight hundred thousand rupees) to the account of bank fraud victim.
While rejecting the representation of the bank against the decision of the Mohtasib, he observed that the bank was at fault for having incorporated the wrong contact numbers of the account holder in the bank system, thereby, preventing the complainant from taking any remedial step to avert the loss after receiving SMS alerts about the fraudulent transactions.
As per the details, Ms. Naveera (the complainant) had been maintaining an account with Muslim Commercial Bank’s (MCB) Gulshan-e-Ravi Branch, Lahore. She had to lose her money after her account was debited by using an ATM Card at four different ATM terminals.
She claimed that those transactions were unauthorized as those had not been conducted by her and the ATM Card was throughout in her possession. She also reported that no SMS alerts about the withdrawal of funds were conveyed to her except one received on 24-01-2019 intimating the withdrawal of Rs 200,000 from her account.
On receiving the SMS, she lodged a complaint with the bank, however, she was not provided with any relief. Subsequently, she approached the Banking Mohtasib to get a refund of Rs 800,000 withdrawn from her account fraudulently.
The Banking Mohtasib in its decision observed that additional contact numbers of the complainant had been added in the bank’s record without any authorization from the account holder, therefore, SMS regarding cash withdrawal transactions could not be received by the complainant.
Moreover, the bank had changed her PIN Code on 21.01.2019, just three days before the transactions, after receiving a phone call from an imposter as the Phone Banking Officer did not probe the caller.
The bank admitted during the hearing that the voice of the caller was different from the voice of the lady complainant. Additionally, the legible CCTV footage and snapshots of disputed transactions with date and time were not visible as the bank was found negligent to implement the State Bank of Pakistan’s guidelines regarding the installation of cameras in ATM cabins/rooms to have secondary evidence and to monitor all activities in the ATM vicinity.
The Mohtasib in its decision stated that the bank was under obligation to prove with cogent reasonable evidence that transactions were conducted by the complainant or were conducted by any person under her mandate.
The Ombudsman, therefore, ordered the bank to make good the loss by crediting the account of the complainant with a sum of Rs 800,000.
Later, the bank filed a representation with the Honorable President, which he rejected observing that the bank miserably failed to fulfil its statutory liability and rebut the claim of the complainant by failing to provide any justification to set aside the orders of the Banking Ombudsman. He noted that as per the law, the Banking Mohtasib is to inquire into the complaints about banking malpractices, maladministration, wrongdoings, fraudulent transactions, the corrupt and mala fide practices by the bank officials and pass appropriate orders on conclusion of the inquiry.
The President rejected the representation of the private bank as no fault could be found with the Banking Mohtasib’s approach to the matter.
