KARACHI: The stock market will likely remain positive during the next week with a view of a positive budget for the market, analysts said.
(more…)Author: Mrs. Anjum Shahnawaz
-
Company incorporation increases to 143,416: SECP
ISLAMABAD: Total number of companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has increased to 143,416 with new incorporation of 1,597 in May 2021, a statement said on Friday.
According to the statement SECP registered 1,597 new companies in May 2021, witnessing a growth of 107 percent as compared to corresponding period last year. The total number of registered companies increased to 143,416.
This is for the second consistent month that over 100 percent growth in incorporation of new companies is being witnessed.
The trend of growth is attributed to digitalization/automation, introduction of simplified combined processes for name reservation and incorporation, and facilitation extended by the SECP’s newly established Business Centre.
In May, around 99 percent companies were registered online, 36 percent of applicants completed the incorporation process same day while 175 foreign users were also registered from overseas.
During the month of May, 68 percent companies had been private limited, 28 percent single member and remaining 4 percent comprise public unlisted companies, not for profit associations, trade organizations and limited liability partnerships (LLP).
The construction & real estate sector took the lead with incorporation of 252 companies, while companies in other sectors include: trading 247, I.T 216, services 149, e-commerce 64, food & beverages 59, education 51, corporate agricultural farming 50, market & development 39, textile 37, tourism 34, chemical 33, healthcare 31, engineering 29, auto & allied 27, logging 25, pharmaceutical 24, mining & quarrying 21, broadcasting & telecasting, and fuel and energy 19 each, cables & electric goods, paper & board, and transport 16 each, cosmetics & toiletries 14, power generation 12, communication 11 and remining 67 companies were registered in other sectors.
Foreign investment has been reported in 48 new companies from Azerbaijan, China, Denmark, Germany, Korea South, Kuwait, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, UAE, the UK and the US.
The highest numbers of companies, i.e. 519 were registered in Islamabad, followed by 513 and 250 companies registered in Lahore and Karachi respectively. The CROs in Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta and Sukkur registered 116, 88, 62, 36, 11 and 02 companies respectively.
-
FBR impounds benami luxury vehicle
ISLAMABAD: Anti-Benami Zone – I Islamabad of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has impounded a luxury vehicle from a residential premise in the capital.
A FBR spokesman on Friday said that it was first of its kind operation in which the anti-benami zone confiscated a luxury five-door vehicle from a residential premise in the capital.
Initial clue to this vehicle’s benami ownership was traced from Excise Office Islamabad Capital Territory.
The suspected benami owner was not enrolled with FBR and upon enquiry he disowned the vehicle and disclosed that he was just a driver whose CNIC was used by the beneficial owner of the vehicle.
After completion of enquiry and investigation, a reference was filed to the Adjudicating Authority which was decided in favor of ABI.
Whereabouts of the vehicle were traced to a house in Islamabad which was subsequently searched, and, on 2nd June 2021, the vehicle was confiscated / impounded with the help of local Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) under the Benami Transactions Prohibition Act 2017.
In accordance with the directions of the Prime Minister, momentum against benami assets accelerated in June 2019 with the inception of Anti Benami Zones across Pakistan.
Newly created zones have so far filed more than 90 references of various categories of assets including shares, bank accounts, vehicles, land etc. Among them are 33 vehicles which shall be confiscated as soon as these references attain finality under the law.
-
Share market gains 118 points as auto sector performs
KARACHI: The share market gained 118 points on Friday as positive sentiments were seen in auto sector. The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 48,212 points as against previous day’s closing of 48,094 points, showing an increase of +118 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market maintained positive momentum today with auto sector performing to its best and helped maintain bullish trend for the market.
Auto sector performed on the back of expectation of an increase in the number of auto sales.
Cement and Steel sector stocks rallied as well, helping put a total of +333 points and closed the session +118 points. E&P, O&GMCs and Fertilizer sector stocks also contributed to the positivity in the Index.
Technology sector saw NETSOL performing well, whereas other tech stocks bore selling pressure. Among scrips, WTL led the table with 89 million shares, followed by HASCOL (78.7 million) and BYCO (54.3 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Autos (+35 points), O&GMCs (++25 points), E&P (+23 points), Pharma (+23 points) and +14 points).
Volumes declined from 889.9 million shares as against 867.3 million (-3 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 16 percent to reach US$ 171.9 million as against US$ 204.5 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, HASCOL, BYCO, FCSC and PTC, which formed 35 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include UBL (+16 points), GLAXO (+14 points), HCAR (+13 points), HASCOL (+12 points) and PSMC (+12 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include BAHL (-25 points), PSX (-11 points), MEBL (-9 points), KTML (-8 points) and COLG (-7 points).
-
Pakistan complies with 31 requirement of FATF
KARACHI: Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering has published results of Pakistan’s second Mutual Evaluation follow-up Report on 2 June 2021.
As per the report, Pakistan has achieved compliant/largely compliant rating in 31 out of 40 Recommendations of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Technical Compliance.
These results prove the sincerity along with resolve of the Government in complying with FATF requirements.
These results are also a manifestation of the irreversibility and sustainability of the complete process in bringing Pakistan at par with Global AML/CFT standards.
These results are manifestation of a whole of government approach adopted to achieve the same.
An upgrade of 21 Recommendations within this short period of time remains unprecedented in FATF history.
-
KTBA welcomes withdrawal of audit notices
KARACHI: Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) on Friday said that after intervention of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) many audit cases have been withdrawn from IRIS Portal, which were initiated under Section 122(5) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
KTBA President Muhammad Zeeshan Merchant in a letter to Chief Commissioners of tax offices located in Karachi welcomed the steps taken for deletion of audit cases that were initiated without definite information.
The KTBA on May 21, 2021 sent communication to all the chief commissioners of tax offices in Karachi informing them that Inland Revenue offices were issuing incorrect audit notices in order to avoid restriction of time limit as defined in the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
The tax bar strongly criticized the issuance of faulty audit notices for tax year 2015 in order to avoid time restrictions.
The KTBA said that notices had wrongly been issued by the field formation without properly appreciating returns of income tax as well as statements of wealth and also without proper application of mind as host of such cases pertains to income from property, salary, dividend etc. and also because the grounds advanced in the notices do not constitute ‘definite information’ within the meaning of Section of 122(8) of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
“As the time limitation prescribed for initiating proceedings for the tax year 2015 draws closer, bar members are afraid of encountering more such weird notices in days to come, which in no way tend to serve the purpose of the Ordinance and are likely to create chaotic situation,” the tax bar said.
In response to the KTBA letter, the FBR took notice and directed the IR officials to avoid opening audit cases merely on surmises and assumptions.
The FBR said that it had received representations suggesting that the field offices were recklessly issuing notices under section 122(5) read with section 122(9) of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 where purportedly the threshold of ‘definite information’ as defined under section 122(8) was not met.
“It goes without saying that amendment proceedings under section 122(5) of the Ordinance, merely on basis of audit suspicion picked from within the declarations lodged by the taxpayers themselves, is an enforcement travesty and need to abate,” the FBR said.
The scheme of law warrants that a taxpayer must be dealt with precisely as per principle of justice and fair play, it added.
The FBR directed the field formation to adhere with law and due diligence must be ensured in respect of each taxpayer and no case should be opened merely on surmises and assumptions. “All taxpayers must be provided adequate opportunity of being heard, too,” the FBR added.
In the instant letter, the KTBA said that most of cases notices with provoked and resentful reasons had been deleted/withdrawn from IRIS portal; whereas in some cases where online deleted/withdrawn communication was made the deletion/withdrawal was still awaited.
-
Rupee makes 17 paisas gain against dollar
The Pakistani rupee experienced a notable gain of 17 paisas against the US dollar on Friday, closing at Rs154.62 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
(more…) -
Measures proposed to curb under invoicing by commercial importers
KARACHI: Pakistan Business Council (PBC) has recommended the authorities to take additional measures to stop massive under invoicing by commercial importers.
In its proposals for the budget 2021/2022, the PBC said that across the board massive under invoicing and dumping of imported products has been increasing.
Information regarding values at which various custom check posts clear import consignments is not publicly available.
This encourages unscrupulous importers to under-declare the value of consignments to evade government revenues.
There are massive leakages in the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) and smuggled goods are being openly sold in all major shopping centers of the country.
Customs however is not willing to act against smuggled products citing lack of cooperation from local authorities.
The PBC recommended the following:
a) Values at which import shipments are cleared through PRAL or CARE need to be publicly available.
b) The Government of Pakistan must insist of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), for both FTA and non-FTA imports from China. In future the requirement of EDI should be made compulsory for imports from FTA / PTA partner countries.
c) Depending on industry, the Import Trade Price (ITP) be fixed e.g. on the basis of country of origin, weight, volume etc. after discussion with stakeholders. ITP’s may be fixed for most items prone to mis-declaration such as consumer goods and margins of commercial importers be monitored to assess the value of subsequent supply of imported goods. A certificate to this effect should be issued by auditors of commercial importers.
d) For items, prone to under invoicing and mis-declaration, FBR should designate one or two ports (including the dry ports) for clearing of import consignments. This will allow better monitoring of the import consignments where chances of mis-declaration are on a higher side.
e) Additionally, the old Customs General Order 25 needs to be revived with a provision that local manufacturers be given the option to buy at a 15% premium, any consignment which appears undervalued.
f) Taxes and duties deposited by local manufacturers and commercial importers should be published.
g) The rate of tax collected from commercial importers be increased by at least by 2%. Presently, tax collected from commercial importers is treated as Final Tax.
In order to avoid burdening of genuine commercial importers, we would recommend that the income tax collected at import stage be treated as an advance tax.
h) In order to allow commercial importers to claim adjustment of taxes deducted at import stage, commercial importers should be asked to present certificate from auditors that at least 70% of imported items have been exported or sold to registered manufacturers. This will also help increase the overall tax base.
i) Monthly sales declared by commercial importers should be matched with sales declared in annual income tax return as well as the credit entries in all business bank accounts. In case of any discrepancy, a reconciliation with justifiable reasons should be submitted by the commercial importers
j) Online CREST system must be amended in a way to trace sales along with value addition thereon of person to whom supplies were made by Commercial importers.
-
PKIC to make Rs500 million investment in Planet N
KARACHI: Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company (Private) Limited (PKIC) announces that it is making an equity investment of Rs500 million in Planet N (Private) Limited. This is the largest equity investment by a local Financial Institution in a Tech Investment Platform in Pakistan. It was approved by the Board of PKIC in December, 2020.
This investment will help Planet N expand its operations and will also motivate other investors to explore opportunities to develop and strengthen tech entrepreneurship and disruption in the country.
With total assets of over rs107 billion and equity of over Rs38 billion, PKIC is Pakistan’s leading DFI engaged in investment and development financing activities in the country. PKIC was established as a joint venture between the Governments of Pakistan and Kuwait in 1979. It is a “AAA” (Triple A) rated financial institution.
Planet N has invested and nurtured tech start-ups such as Tapmad TV, Dawaai.pk, PublishEx, Tez Financial Services, Datalift, PiePie, Kashat, JinglePay, etc. spread across various jurisdictions including Pakistan, UAE, Egypt, Singapore and USA. It currently has more than 30 companies in its portfolio focusing on financial inclusion, fintech, digital media, data science & AI. This portfolio is expected to grow further after the equity investment by PKIC.
Speaking on the occasion of the signing ceremony, MD PKIC Mubashar Maqbool expressed his elation at this investment by PKIC and stated that PKIC has a firm desire to support all priority sectors of the economy, especially the growing technology sector, by providing traditional as well as innovative financing solutions to its prospective customers.
Maqbool hoped that this landmark investment should inspire other players, investors, family business houses, and investment companies to do the same and would also encourage the young entrepreneurs in the tech sector.
CEO Planet N Nadeem Hussain said he has always tried to encourage local investors to aid young entrepreneurs with innovative ideas. His initial investment in tech companies has seen exponential gains and he hopes that having PKIC as an equity partner will initiate a big disruption in the local- investors- horizon and their approach towards tech-based investments.
Irfan Siddiqui, CEO and President Meezan Bank Ltd, chief guest to the occasion said that this is one of its kind investment by a local DFI into a Tech disruption investment company paving the way for further investment by other financial institutions that will help tech start-ups in Pakistan.
Also, present on the occasion were Ariful Islam, Deputy CEO Meezan Bank Ltd, Khurram Hussain, MD Pak Libya Holding Co. and senior management from PKIC, Planet N, and Arif Habib Limited (AHL). AHL acted as the Financial Advisor to this landmark transaction.
Planet N was founded by Nadeem Hussain in 2016; with a vision to invest in growth oriented hi-tech companies. Hussain is the founder and ex-CEO of Telenor (previously Tameer) Microfinance Bank.
-
Country’s foreign exchange reserves increase by $278mn to $23.294bn
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced on Thursday that the country’s liquid foreign exchange reserves witnessed a significant boost, soaring by $278 million to reach $23.294 billion by the week ending May 28, 2021.
(more…)