KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday cancelled the license of an exchange company for violation the regulatory provisions.
The SBP said it cancelled the license of M/s Karwan Exchange Company ‘B’ (Pvt.) Limited on account of violations of SBP’s regulations.
The said exchange company, including its head office and branches have been debarred from undertaking any kind of foreign exchange related business activity.
KARACHI: Deterioration in Pak Rupee continued on Thursday owing to demand for import and corporate payments.
(more…)KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for the first time issued annual schedule for announcement of monetary policy, a statement said on Thursday.
The SBP said that taking another step towards making the process of monetary policy formulation more predictable and transparent, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has decided to begin announcing a half-yearly schedule of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meetings on a rolling basis. In this regard, the dates for the next four meetings are envisaged as follows:
May MPC meeting: Friday, 28th May 2021
July MPC meeting: Tuesday, 27th July 2021
September MPC meeting: Monday, 20th September 2021
November MPC meeting: Friday, 26th November 2021
It is pertinent to mention that a minimum of 6 MPC meetings are scheduled every year. In addition, the MPC can convene emergency meetings during the intervening period, if required.
In taking this step, SBP is following international best practices. To manage expectations of economic agents, many central banks across the globe release the schedule of Monetary Policy Committee meetings in advance. This practice is consistent with the objective of reducing uncertainty around monetary policy decision making.
Clear communication helps to make central banks more transparent, and thereby contributes to enhancing their accountability. Central bank communication and transparency are also key for effective transmission of monetary policy decisions. In this context, SBP has over the years been seeking to modernize and increase transparency in the monetary policy making process, in line with international best practices. Some of these initiatives are laid out below:
In 2005, SBP began releasing Monetary Policy Statements.
In 2009, it was decided to hold at least 6 meetings on monetary policy, envisaged to take place in the calendar months of January, March, May, July, September and November. It was also decided to hold a press conference to announce the monetary policy decision in the months of January and July, to supplement the Monetary Policy Statement.
In 2015, after the introduction of an independent Monetary Policy Committee through an amendment in the SBP Act, two major changes were introduced to increase transparency. First, SBP started publishing minutes of the MPC meetings on its website. Second, the voting pattern of the MPC members was also made public.
In 2020, to make monetary policy communication more effective, SBP enhanced interactions with analysts, the media, various business forums, academics, and investors through regular briefing sessions with its senior management.
In January 2021, in light of the extreme uncertainty caused by the Covid pandemic, the MPC decided to provide forward guidance on monetary policy for the first time to facilitate policy predictability and decision-making by economic agents.
Looking forward, SBP remains committed to continue modernizing its communication in line with international best practices and evolving domestic circumstances.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued a directive to officers of the Inland Revenue Service (IRS) to submit their performance reports in preparation for the upcoming promotion committee meetings.
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KARACHI: Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association (PYMA) on Wednesday urged the tax authorities to extend the date for payment of sales tax and filing monthly return for the period April 2021.
In a joint statement, Hanif Lakhany, Vice President, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) and PYMA Senior Vice Chairman and Farhan Ashrafi, Vice Chairman PYMA & convener FPCCI’s Central Standing Committee on Yarn Trading, have urged the Chairman of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for extension in dates of payment and submission of Sales Tax and Federal Excise Return for the Tax Period of April 2021, by at least 2 weeks, as business community could not file sales tax and federal excise returns due to the long Eid holidays.
In a letter to FBR Chairman Asim Ahmed, Hanif Lakhany and Farhan Ashrafi stated that in response to PYMA’s demand for extension till May 31, 2021, the dates for filing sales tax & FE returns extended till May 18, 2021 only.
“But the Eid holidays did not benefit the business community and they could not prepare and submit their sales tax and federal excise returns for the month of April 2021 in the limited number of days announced,” according to the statement.
“It is difficult for the business community to work in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, given the already limited business hours and the risks of the epidemic,” they added.
In such a situation, the FBR needs to make it easier for the business community to file their taxes easily.
Hanif Lakhany and Farhan Ashrafi requested the Chairman FBR to extend the deadline for submission of sales tax and FE returns by at least 2 weeks, so that the business community can submit their returns without any hassle, which will be warmly welcomed by the business community.
KARACHI: Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) on Wednesday strongly condemned Israeli barbaric attacks on innocent Palestinians and demanded immediate halt of barbaric attacks in Gaza.
KTBA President Muhammad Zeeshan Merchant, while leading the protest rally, expressed deep anger over the current violent Israeli atrocities on the innocent Palestinians.
Showing solidarity with the Palestinian people, the tax bar expressed concerns over Israeli aggression and brutality in Palestine and strongly condemned the barbaric attacks on the innocent people.
“The intensifying assault on Gaza is beyond the pale of humanity,” Merchant said, adding that it was an act of aggression and a pompous show of strength on the part of the Israeli military on innocent and helpless Muslims of Palestine.
“Our members believe that hundreds of civilians’ causalities are horrendous for this so-called civilized world,” KTBA president said.
The tax bar also condemned the Israeli attacks on offices of media organizations in Gaza. “We demand the atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli government and the military should be stopped immediately in Gaza.”
“We believe in survival through co-existence but what is happening is not about the so-called Israeli’s right to exist.”
The KTBA demanded the government to strongly speak and take stand to safeguard the sanctity of Qibla-e-Awwal as well as the right of Palestinians.
KARACHI: The benchmark KSE-100 index ended down by 300 points on Wednesday on reports of rift in ruling party, analysts said. The index closed at 45,682 points as against previous day’s closing of 45,982 points, showing a decline of 300 points.
The analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market turned negative today which was a reflection of political uncertainty created by the rifts between the senior members of the ruling party.
The index bore regression of 369 points during the session and realized a pull back, ending the session -300 points.
Cement, O&GMCs, Banks, Refinery, Steel sector stocks saw selling pressure.
However, the sentiment turned particularly negative due to persistent selling in Technology stocks. Among scrips, KEL led the table with 65.4 million shares, followed by UNITY (56.9 million) and HASCOL (44.1 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology (-83 points), Cement (-72 points), Banks (-53 points), Textile (-29 points) and O&GMCs (-24 points).
Volumes increased from 536.8 million shares to 578.3 million shares (+8 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined from US$ 150.8 million to US$ 135.7 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, UNITY, HASCOL, WTL and TELE, which formed 41 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include MARI (+16 points), HASCOL (+14 points), KEL (+14 points), OGDC (+13 points) and ENGRO (+10 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include TRG (-70 points), LUCK (-24 points), HBL (-23 points), PSO (-22 points) and HUBC (-22 points).
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday issued guidelines for recruitment against vacant posts (BS-1 to BS-5) in the Inland Revenue Department.
The FBR advertised the vacant posts in BS-01 to BS-05 on May 09, 2021.
The authorities had advised the candidates to submit their applications directly to the concerned IR field offices by May 25, 2021.
The recruitment process has to be finalized by the field formations by July 28, 2021, as per instructions of the Establishment Division.
In order to ensure transparency and merit based selection/recruitment, following guidelines have been prepared in the light of relevant rules and latest instructions of the government, to have uniformity in the recruitment process, which are for guidance and compliance of field formations.
These guidelines are of supplemental nature, do not over-ride the relevant rules/regulations and instructions of the Government on the subject:
The advertisement for recruitment shall be affixed on the Notice Board of each field office.
The recruitment process must be transparent, merit based and must be strictly completed
in accordance with the relevant rules/procedures/instructions issued from time to time.
The concerned field formations will conduct requisite test for the posts where warranted under the service rules. No testing agency can be engaged for the recruitment process in the light of latest instruction of the Federal Government conveyed vide Establishment Division 0.M No. 53/1/2008-SP dated 06.05.2020. It may be noted that the Federal Government has withdrawn its O.M. dated 29.07.2019 (Annex-II) regarding conducting balloting for the post in BPS 1-5 vide SRO 198(0/2020 dated 11.03.2020 (Annex-Ill), so there will be no balloting for recruitment against any posts in any grade.
The heads of field formation shall designate an officer of their formation to act as focal person to assist the relevant Departmental Selection Committees (DSCs) in the selection/recruitment process against posts falling under their jurisdiction.
The concerned field formation will prepare the lists/particulars of the qualified candidates with score awarded for the skill test and submit the lists to the concerned departmental Selection Committees (DSCs) specifically constituted in each field formation for the purpose of recruitment.
After compilation of recommendations for selection and signing of minutes of the meetings, the Chairman of the DSCs shall forward the signed minutes to the respective Appointing Authority for approval. The selected candidates shall be issued offer of appointment by the concerned office on prescribed format.
The appointment letters must be issued through Registered post to ensure timely delivery. Result shall be displayed on Notice Board of the respective office.
The number of existing vacant posts in the respective field formation must be re-confirmed from Budget Book prior to issuance of offer of appointment.
The respective Appointing authorities through their designated focal persons will be personally responsible for any lapse i.e recruitment made in excess of the actual number of vacant posts in the respective formation or any procedural lapse / irregularity and record will be saved / preserved for Audit and Accountability by the Focal Person.
Domiciles of candidates shall be verified in the light of Establishment Division’s letter No. 5/7/2009/PPRAC-Vol.X11 dated 31.03.2021 and No. 5/1/2021-(R) dated 06.04.2021 (Annex-VII), (Annex-VIII)
A list of finally selected candidates against the vacant posts may invariably be forwarded to the Board for information and record by each office upon completion of recruitment process.
No candidate shall be appointed without verification of character / antecedent and Medical Fitness Certificate by Authorized Medical Board.
These guidelines are being issued in supersession of earlier one issued on the subject on May, 2021
KARACHI: Engro Corporation, Pakistan’s premier conglomerate, has selected Honeywell UOP and W. R. Grace & Co. as technology partners to use their licensed process technology for the $1.5 billion, 750,000 Propane Dehydrogenation (“PDH”) and Polypropylene (“PP”) production facility, that would make Pakistan a self-sufficient producer of Polypropylene, a statement said on Tuesday.
Polypropylene resin is used in the manufacturing of a variety of daily use consumer products including woven bags, food and non-food packaging, films, sheets, household containers, battery casings, kitchenware, electrical appliances, bottles, caps, pipes & fittings, medical equipment, and a wide range of other products. To meet these needs, polypropylene has a local annual demand of 500,000 with an expected grow rate of 7 percent annually.
Honeywell will provide its C3 Oleflex™ technology and basic engineering design services, in addition to equipment, catalysts and adsorbents for the plant. Since 2011, most of the new dehydrogenation projects globally have been based on UOP C3 Oleflex technology.
However, this will mark the first use of C3 Oleflex in Pakistan. The technology is designed to have a lower cash cost of production and higher return on investment when compared to competing dehydrogenation technologies.
Its low energy consumption, low emissions and fully recyclable, platinum-alumina-based catalyst system, helps minimize its impact on the environment. The independent reactor and regeneration design of the Oleflex technology helps maximize operating flexibility and onstream reliability.
W. R. Grace & Co., the leading independent supplier of polyolefin catalyst technology and polypropylene (PP) process technology, will provide its state-of-the-art UNIPOL® PP Process Technology to help achieve mechanical and operational simplicity. The process technology, coupled with Grace’s proprietary catalyst and donor systems and the UNIPOL UNIPPAC® Process Control System, allows for maximum performance.
While announcing the new partnerships, Ghias Khan, President & CEO of Engro Corporation said that, “Engro continues on its journey towards solving the most pressing issues of our time by investing in projects which will serve to be catalysts of growth for Pakistan.
“For the Project, we have selected Honeywell and Grace as our technology partners based on their extensive experience and cutting-edge solutions that have helped to set up such projects globally. This collaboration will support the advanced studies for the Project, which can be a significant milestone for Engro and Pakistan towards import substitution that will help build foreign exchange reserves, while also enhancing the petrochemicals landscape of the country.”
Pakistan faces a critically adverse balance of payments situation due to the country’s continued reliance on imports, and petrochemicals are one of the largest imports of the country, contributing around $2 billion to the import bill. Currently, Pakistan spends about $600 million on annual import of polypropylene.
With decades of experience in petrochemicals and a commitment to further develop its footprint in the petrochemicals vertical, Engro started conducting the commercial feasibility of the PDH complex in April 2019.
Recently, Engro announced an investment of over $30 million to conduct engineering, design and technical studies including a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) study in relation to the Project.
The studies will help Engro delineate the technical complexities, refine the investment cost estimates, enhance its commercial understanding and devise mitigation strategies for potential risks of the project.
KARACHI: Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) on Tuesday urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to further extend the last date for sales tax payment and filing monthly return as taxpayers are unable to comply with statutory requirement due to extended Eid holidays.
The tax bar asked the tax authorities to extend the date of payment of sales tax and date of e-filing of the monthly sales tax return for the period April 2021 till May 24, 2021 and May 27, 2021, respectively to facilitate members of the bar and the compliant taxpayers to fulfill their legal obligation.
While referring to a notification previously issued by the FBR to extend the date for payment of sales tax and filing monthly return for the period April 2021 issued on May 06, 2021, the date of payment was extended up to May 18, 2021 followed by filing of sales tax return till May 21, 2021.
The KTBA said that may taxpayers and bar members had approached the association informing that the extended date (two days) for payment of sales tax for the tax period April 2021 was insufficient as businesses were not functional properly after Eid Holidays that were during May 10 to May 15, 2021 followed by Sunday on May 16, 2021.
The KTBA also highlighted that in many cases taxpayers were unable to submit Annexure C as the last date of furnishing of Annexure C was May 10, 2021 which was also a holiday on account of Eid. It is important to note that unless Annexure C is submitted, sales tax payment amount cannot be calculated as payment of sales tax is dependent upon submission of Annexure C.
The tax bar further informed that provincial revenue authorities had extended deadline for payments and filing of their respective sales tax returns between May 21 and May 27.
“It is important to highlight that federal sales tax return cannot be furnished before the dates as extended by the provincial revenue authorities owing to the fact that input tax relating to services falling under the provincial domain can only be claimed in federal sales tax return once corresponding provincial sales tax return has been submitted by respective service provider,” the KTBA said.