KARACHI: Meezan Bank Limited, in collaboration with the Sindh government and DHA Karachi, has launched second COVID-19 drive-through vaccination centre.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has extended the last date for payment and filing of returns for the month of July 2021. The decision, communicated through a circular, offers additional time for businesses and individuals to meet their obligations, acknowledging the challenges posed by various factors, including the evolving economic landscape and ongoing global uncertainties.
In a statement issued on Saturday, he urged the government to control instability of rupee against the US dollar, as the greenback has appreciated 7.15 per cent since May this year, hitting 10 months high to cross the Rs164 mark.
FPCCI’s Businessmen Panel Chairman Mian Anjum Nisar observed that the industrial expansion and economic growth is not possible without stability of local currency, as the dollar has been appreciating against the rupee for the last more than 10 months because of the higher current account deficit and burgeoning import bills.
FPCCI former president observed that the market-based flexible exchange rate system, resilience in remittances and other factors can help contain the current account deficit in a sustainable range of 2-3 percent of GDP in FY22.
He said that the rising of dollar is not logical despite the fact that the State Bank says Pakistan’s external position was at its strongest in 10 years with 0.6 per cent current account deficit in FY21.
Since the May this year, the dollar has been appreciated by 7.15 per cent against the local currency which lifted the cost of imported products and created uncertainty about the exchange rate stability.
The dollar was at Rs164 in October 2020 and now again hovering in the range of Rs164 in Aug 2021.
Since the beginning of the new financial year the exchange rate looked a shaky as the local currency lost almost 4 per cent against the US dollar. The market reacted over the policy-makers’ announcement about 2-3 per cent current account deficit, while the importers rushed for higher amount.
He said that trade and industry have no idea as to what is the real exchange rate needed by the central bank and which is the end point for depreciation of rupee. Though the exporters would get some benefit against their export proceeds but the overall economy would face a tough time as the cost has been rising and finally it would affect consumption, which is the main wheel to run the economy.
Although the central banks’ foreign exchange reserves are in a better shape, but it has to rely heavily on borrowing to keep it at around $18 billion which affects the local currency value negatively.
He said that Pakistan has received record $29.4 billion remittances in fiscal year 2020-21 and it again received $2.7 billion in July FY22, indicating that the new financial year would also get help larger than the entire exports of the country, which is not long-term solution.
Besides increasing exports and controlling imports the government will have to take administrative measures, as a large demand of cash dollars are seen in the market. Mian Mian Anjum Nisar appreciated the positive development related to economic indicators, urging the government to control volatility of rupee against the US dollar, showing that exchange rate is not managed by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) but it also indicates the exchange rate is not stable.
He said that the end of previous fiscal year with rising current account deficit was a serious blow to the exchange rate while the fear of higher demand of dollars further exacerbated with the information of the SBP that the county would need $20 billion to repay loans.
Nisar said that the import bill of $6 billion in June this year was enough to signal the market that demand of dollar was very high. He said that the rising instability in Afghanistan has stirred fear within Pakistan that may hurt the normal economic life in the country, motivating people to buy dollars. At the same time, exports to Afghanistan have come down to almost zero level.
Formal and informal exports to the country are in the range of $1.5 billion to $2 billion per year. Mian Anjum said that the fourth wave of Covid-19 is another negative force to depreciate the local currency and shatter the confidence.
Terming rupee depreciation against dollar a mysterious development, he said that continued fall of rupee is not understandable with the fact that there was no fundamental change in the country’s economic indicators.
KARACHI: The stock market may witnessed positive sentiments next week on expectation of strong results. However, concerns over COVID-19 fourth may keep the sentiment skittish, said analysts at Arif Habib Limited.
Furthermore, prevailing tension in Afghanistan with continuing withdrawal of US army by end of this month may exert pressure on the local bourse.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is currently trading at a PER of 6.6x (2021) compared to Asia Pac regional average of 16.0x while offering a dividend yield of 6.6 per cent versus 2.4 per cent offered by the region.
The market commenced on a negative note given mounting concerns over current account. Moreover, recent depreciation of Pak Rupee against USD (closing at PKR 164) kept the momentum weak.
During the week, the market bounced back and cushioned the dip amid robust financial results of some scrips, massive incentives approved by Federal Govt. for technology and telecom sector, robust remittances (USD 2.7 billion in July 2021) and 114 per cent YoY surge in automobile sales in July 2021.
Albeit, the KSE-100 closed at 47,170 points, shedding 320 points (down by 0.7 per cent) WoW.
Sector-wise negative contributions came from i) Cement (112 points), ii) Oil & Gas Marketing Companies (67 points), iii) Oil & Gas Exploration (52 points), iv) Power Generation & Distribution (41 points) and v) Fertilizer (39 points).
Whereas, the sectors that contributed positively included i) Technology & Communication (47 points) and ii) Food & Personal Care Products (37 points). Scrip-wise negative contributors were LUCK (43 points), PPL (32 points), HUBC (32 points), PSO (32 points) and OGDC (31 points). Meanwhile, scrip-wise positive contribution came from TRG (83 points), MEBL (46 points), and FCEPL (44 points).
Foreign buying continued this week, clocking at USD 4.0 million against a net buy of USD 3.1 million last week. Buying was witnessed in Technology (USD 4.2 million), Banks (USD 0.9 million) and Fertilizer (USD 0.3 million). On the domestic front, major selling was reported by Insurance (USD 6.6 million) and Individuals (USD 3.0 million). Average volumes clocked-in at 307 million shares (down by 33 per cent WoW) while average value traded settled at USD 73 million (down by 14 per cent WoW).
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Thursday reaffirmed the government’s strong commitment to the expansion and facilitation of the e-Commerce sector in Pakistan, viewing it as a key driver of future economic growth and digital transformation.
KARACHI: The stocks ended down by 107 points on Thursday amid trading in range bound activity. The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 47,271 points as against previous day’s closing of 47,377 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that after posting an uptick yesterday, the index again traded range bound between +179 points and -202 points.
Market poised for a clear trigger in disregard to the announcement of infrastructure projects by the Prime Minister Imran Khan, which could have impacted stock prices of listed Cement and Steel sectors.
Profit booking was observed across the board except for some blue chip stocks, with nominal price gains.
Ongoing earnings season has so far turned out to show muted response from Investors, especially with respect to earnings of Attock Group where the pertinent stocks gave nominal and temporary upside.
Among scrips, TRG realized total volumes of 19.2 million shares, followed by GGL (15 million) and WTL (11.8 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+46 points), Technology (+40 points), O&GMCs (-29 points), Power (-21 points) and E&P (-19 points).
Volumes declined from 382.6 million shares to 230.2 million shares (-40 per cent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 27 per cent to reach US$ 70.4 million as against US$ 95.8 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, GGL, WTL, TPLP and BYCO, which formed 29 per cent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include MEBL (+42 points), TRG (+40 points), BAHL (+14 points), MLCF (+12 points) and HBL (+8 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HUBC (-20 points), PSO (-17 points), PPL (-14 points), EFERT (-13 points) and LUCK (-12 points).
KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has initiated action against big retailers by posting tax officials at business premises for monitoring of sales.
Corporate Tax Office (CTO) Karachi, an arm of the FBR, has posted its staff at eight outlets of a big retailer for checking sales, purchase and production of saleable goods.
The tax office posted its staff at eight outlets of Clifton Nimco Private limited under Section 40B of the Sales Tax Act, 1990.
Sources said that it was major step taken by the tax authorities to check tax evasion at retail level.
They said that the step was taken on the directives of Dr. Aftab Imam, chief commissioner inland revenue in order to assure the retail unit is making true declaration of its sales.
The tax office also enforced sales tax rules to install point of sale (POS) at the outlet, which is mandatory for big retailers.
Installing POS machine is mandatory for all retailers falling under category of Tier-1 retailers.
One of the major changes brought through the Finance Act, 2021 that all those outlets accepting debit and credit cards are required to integrate their sales with the FBR.
The sources said that the team of the tax officials would depute till gathering of require information to ascertain the sales and income of the outlet.
