KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines, the national flag carrier, on Wednesday declared a loss of Rs42.72 billion during the first nine months (January – September) of 2021.
The losses of the national flag carrier were over Rs40 billion in the same period of the last year.
The board of directors of PIA in its meeting on October 27, 2021, approved the financial results for the period ended September 30, 2021.
The board has not approved any cash dividend, bonus shares, or right shares for the period.
The revenue of the airline significantly declined to Rs49.36 billion during January – September 2021 as compared with Rs74.36 billion in the same period of the last year.
On account of aircraft fuel, the airline has spent Rs13.44 billion during the period under review as compared with Rs18.08 billion in the corresponding period of the last year.
Administrative expenses of PIA reduced to Rs3.97 billion during the first nine months of the current year as compared with Rs4.53 billion in the same period of the last year.
The exchange losses of the company were at Rs5.18 billion for the period under review as compared with Rs7.57 billion.
KARACHI: Naveed Abbas, Additional Director and Chief Domain Officer, Pakistan Single Window (PSW) has said that 27 banks will be integrated with the PSW for the facilitation of import and exports.
He said that the facility will help reduce time, cost, and complexity to ensure ease of business, besides supporting the government agencies in adopting an integrated risk management approach for efficient enforcement of control on cross-border trade.
Under the PSW platform, he said, an ICT-based port community system will also be established and all stakeholders including FIA, Customs, terminal operators, and others will be integrated for efficient cargo management at seaports, airports, dry ports, and land border crossings.
The implementation of PSW by June 2022 will enable Pakistan to achieve compliance with WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement besides helping to unlock its potential in becoming a hub for trade and transit.
He informed that thousand of registrations have been received so far in the PSW portal whereas 27 banks will also be integrated with PSW which would save the business community from visiting banks to fulfill the requirement of Export and Import forms. Right now in the first phase, PSW have five large banks integrated and other are under process.
Yawar Nawaz, Additional Director (PSW) gave a detailed presentation on the main context of Pakistan Single Window (PSW) is to efficient cross border trade management – key enabler for FDI, GVCs integration, International Trade & Transit; 75 Regulators – working in silos with weak controls, limited resources, antiquated regulations/enforcement; Resultant Thick Borders – nullifies strategic location of Pakistan & investment in allied infrastructure and NSW to overhaul management of external trade/transit & fulfil commitment under WTO’s TFA.
The Scope of PSW is that Single ICT based National Trade Platform for processing cross border trade; Process re-engineering & back-end automation of participating government departments; Port Community System for removing logistic side inefficiencies; Integrated Risk Management for smarter controls, compliance & facilitation; Integrated Tariff Management System for simplified compliance; A robust Business Model for sustainable operations & phased expansion.
The Core Services of PSW are Integrated Tariff Management System, Unified Registration System, Unified e-Payment System, Integrated Lab Management, Integrated Risk Management System, Joint Inspections, Port Community System, Trade Information Portal, Alignment of WeBOC, Hardware, Change Management and Implementation Plan.
The Cardinals for PSW is to eliminating redundancy & duplication, least physical engagement among stakeholders, use of standardized and harmonized data elements, incremental submission of structured data with parallel processing, automatic routing & verifications and real time information exchange. Samar Jamil, BPM Head (PSW) briefed the Registration Process step by step.
After detailed presentation, exporters asked several questions related to PSW which was answered by the PSW Team of Officials.
Muhammad Jawed Bilwani Chief Coordinator & Former Central Chairman PHMA welcomed the PSW Officials at PHMA for this orientation seminar to enlighten the exporters about the main features of PSW which will provide single electronic platform for facilitating compliance with regulatory regime for cross border trade in Pakistan and to answer questions asked by exporters.
Shahzad Azam Khan, Central Chairman PHMA; Abdul Rehman, Chairman (SZ) PHMA; Abdul Kadir Bilwani, Senior Vice-Chairman; Faisal Arshad Shaikh, Vice-Chairman also participated in the Seminar and appreciated this imperative initiative which is a need of time to provide single and unified platform for business requirements which will decrease the cost of manufacturing and shall increase the ease of doing business.
KARACHI: The stock market gained 623 points on Wednesday as new trading system suspended for more than two hours. The benchmark KSE-100 index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended 45,851 points from previous day’s closing of 45,228 points.
Analysts at Topline Securities said that the KSE-100 index rose 1.38 per cent to settle the day at 45,851 points.
The rally is attributed to improvement in sentiments owing to reports suggesting that Saudi Arabia would deposit $3 billion cash in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and also provide $1.2 billion worth of oil on deferred payments which will further pave way for the resumption of the IMF program.
However, the new trading system kept activity restricted and trading was also suspended at noon for 2 hours and 30 minutes in order to resolve technical issues.
Volumes remained thin with 88 million shares traded in the KSE-100 index while the KSE All Share index saw a total traded volume of 163 million shares.
The volume leader for today was WTL with 11.84 million shares traded during the shortened session.
ISLAMABAD: Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa called on Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday.
The meeting was part of the ongoing consultation process between the Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff about the timing of change of command in ISI and selection of the new DG ISI.
During this process a list of officers was received from ministry of Defence. Prime Minister interviewed all the nominees.
A final round of consultation was held between the Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff today.
After this detailed consultative process, name of Lt. Gen. Nadeem Anjum was approved as new DG ISI.
The designate DG ISI shall assume charge on 20th November, 2021.
The president upheld the orders of the Wafaqi Mohtasib to pay the death insurance claims to the widows of policyholders in two separate cases and rejected the representations of SLICP in this regard.
According to the details, Mst. Nagina Fatima’s late husband had purchased non-medical life insurance policy for Rs 1 million and paid annual premium amounting to Rs 54,890 on December 31, 2018.
After his death in February 2019, the widow, being the nominee of the deceased policyholder, approached the SLICP for the payment of death insurance claim.
The SLICP repudiated her insurance claim without issuing her any notice, thereafter, the widow approached the office of the Wafaqi Mohtasib for the redressal of her grievance.
Similarly, the husband of Mst. Rehana Kosar had purchased a policy for Rs 410,000 and after paying annual premium in July 2019 he died. Mst. Kosar’s claim was also rejected without issuing any notice to her after which she approached the Wafaqi Mohtasib to seek justice.
Subsequently, Wafaqi Mohtasib, in both the cases, passed the orders directing SLICP to redress the grievances of the complainants by paying them death insurance claims, taking disciplinary actions against the delinquent officers/officials under the relevant laws and reporting compliance or intimate the reasons for not doing so within 30 days in terms of the Article 11(2) of P.O. 1 of 1983. SLICP, thereafter, filed appeals to the President assailing the orders of the Wafaqi Mohtasib. While rejecting the representation of SLICP, the President noted that under the Article 32 of the Establishment of the Office of Wafaqi Mohtasib Order 1983 read with Section 14 of the Federal Ombudsmen Institutional Reforms Act 2013, any person aggrieved by the order of the Mohtasib may file a representation within 30 days before the Honourable President.
He stated that in both cases, the orders of the Mohtasib were forwarded to the agency on 26.05.2021 whereas both the instant representations of SLICP were field on 07.07.2021.
The President observed that the extant law didn’t empower the condonation of delay to entertain a representation which is time barred, adding that it is liable to be rejected out rightly as incompetent and time barred. He remarked that the agency did not challenge the declarations made by the deceased policyholders about their good state of health and treated the insurance policies as “good risk” and a valid contract since the date of issuance of policies till their deaths for all intents and purposes.
He ordered to estop the agency to assail the policy after the death of policyholders as the agency repudiated the claim without issuing any notices and without providing the complainants the opportunity of being heard. The President in his decision wrote that the agency did not fulfil the requirements of natural justice which is one of the most sacred principles and its violation is always considered enough to vitiate even the most solemn proceeding.
“Therefore, the representation is rejected at it is time barred and the Agency must consider the matter further, redress the grievance of the complainants by paying them death insurance claims, take disciplinary actions against delinquent officers under relevant laws and report compliance within 30 days”, he ordered.
KARACHI: Philip Morris (Pakistan) Limited on Tuesday announced a 39 per cent decline in its profit after tax for the quarter ended September 30, 2021.
According to financial results shared with the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the company declared a profit of Rs351 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 as compared with the profit of Rs575.56 million in the same quarter of the last year.
The board of directors of Philip Morris (Pakistan) Limited at its meeting held on October 26, 2021 approved the quarterly financial statements of the company for the quarter ended September 30, 2021.
The company declared a net profit of Rs2.07 billion for the nine months period ended September 30, 2021 as compared with Rs1.83 billion in the same period of the last year.
During the nine months ended September 30, 2021, the company’s net turnover stood at Rs12,789 million reflecting an increase of 7.5 per cent versus the same period last year.
During the period, the Company’s contribution to the National Exchequer, in the form of excise duty, sales tax and other government levies, stood at Rs20,449 million (higher by 17.4 per cent compared to the same period last year) reflecting 60.9 per cent of nine months gross turnover.
Unaltered excise rate on cigarettes in June 2021 during Federal Budget 2021/2022 is supporting Government Revenues and added to FBRs record revenue collection.
During the first Quarter ended September 30, 2021 of the ongoing fiscal year 2021/22, the Company’s contribution to the National Exchequer (July’21-Sep’21) in the form of excise duty, sales tax and other Government levies, stood at Rs6,014 million (higher by 22.1 per cent versus prior period).
No change in excise rates also led to consumer price stability of the tax paying cigarette brands, however, the price gap between tax paid and non-tax paid brands remains very significant and non-tax paid brands continue to sell lower than the minimum price for the purposes of levy and collection of federal excise duty of i.e. Rs63 per pack.
We are of the view that Pakistan’s economy which started to gain momentum in the first half of the calendar year, is now facing serious challenges.
The continuing rise of commodity and fuel prices internationally accompanied by a devaluation of the PKR v/s US$ has pushed up the inflation rate.
The country’s economic challenges, therefore, need greater focus by the Government as it has already eroded the purchasing power of the common man.
The management is concerned that the current volatile domestic and international economic environment might have serious consequences for the Company’s operations especially, as it may divert the cigarette consumer to cheaper illicit brands to offset the decline in their income.
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee (PKR) on Tuesday continued its fathomless journey against the dollar as the foreign currency reached to a new high of Rs175.27.
The rupee ended with a decline of 84 paisas to close at Rs175.27 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs174.43 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
Currency dealers said that the external payment kept the pressure on dollar demand during the day.
They said that the dollar demand was remained high owing to widening of trade deficit. Further, the reduction in official foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has also put pressure on dollar demand.
The official foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank recorded a decline of $1.646 billion to $17.492 billion by the week ended October 15, 2021 as compared with $19.138 billion by week ended October 08, 2021.
The import bill has registered 66.11 per cent growth to $18.74 billion during the first quarter of the current fiscal year as compared with $11.28 billion in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal year.
The rupee is facing a continuous fall since start of the current fiscal year. The local currency recorded a depreciation of Rs17.73 or 11.25 per cent against the dollar when compared the value of Rs157.54 to dollar on June 30, 2021 with Rs175.27 as on October 26, 2021.
The Pak Rupee so far lost 57 paisas against the dollar during intra-day trading in the interbank foreign exchange market.
The rupee ended Rs174.43 to the dollar a day earlier.
Currency experts said that the massive external payments of imports and repayment by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had also put pressure on dollar demand.
The official foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank recorded a decline of $1.646 billion to $17.492 billion by the week ended October 15, 2021 as compared with $19.138 billion by week ended October 08, 2021.
The current account deficit ballooned to $3.4 billion during July – September 2021 as compared with a surplus of $865 million in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, according to the SBP.
The import bill shown a 66.11 per cent growth to $18.74 billion during the first quarter of the current fiscal year as compared with $11.28 billion in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal year.
KARACHI: Indus Motor Company Limited has reported a remarkable 195% increase in net profit, reaching Rs5.42 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2021, compared to Rs1.84 billion during the same period last year.
