KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday issued the following Karachi Interbank Offered Rates (KIBOR) on October 22, 2021.
| Tenor | BID | OFFER |
| 1 – Week | 7.21 | 7.71 |
| 2 – Week | 7.25 | 7.75 |
| 1 – Month | 7.31 | 7.81 |
| 3 – Month | 8.08 | 8.33 |
| 6 – Month | 8.49 | 8.74 |
| 9 – Month | 8.73 | 9.23 |
| 1 – Year | 8.96 | 9.46 |
The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has taken swift action in response to a complaint against customs authorities, addressing unnecessary delays in the clearance of a consignment. The complainant, a regular importer of Agricultural Tractors, reported that the customs authorities had unjustifiably halted the clearance of a shipment of tractors destined for use by farmers in the country.
(more…)
KARACHI: The US dollar continued its upward trajectory in the interbank foreign exchange market on Friday, closing at Rs174. This marks a slight depreciation of the Pakistani rupee, which lost four paisas compared to the previous day’s closing rate of Rs173.96.
(more…)Karachi, October 22, 2021: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has released the official exchange rates for Friday, October 22, 2021.
(more…)
KARACHI: Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has assured traders of Jodia Bazaar of taking up their issues with the authorities and get them resolved.
Chairman Businessmen Group (BMG) Zubair Motiwala and President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Muhammad Idrees, after listening to the hardships being faced by traders of Jodia Bazaar, assured that the Karachi Chamber will take up all issues being faced by the traders/ shopkeepers of Jodia Bazaar with relevant quarters and will try its best to get them amicably resolved so that the traders and shopkeepers, who are an integral part of KCCI, could smoothly carry out their activities without any hassle.
The assurance was given at a meeting during the visit of a delegation from Jodia Bazaar which was led by Haroon Agar to congratulate the newly elected office bearers. Senior Vice President KCCI Abdul Rehman Naqi, Vice President Qazi Zahid Hussain and KCCI Managing Committee also attended the meeting whereas Jodia Bazaar delegation comprised of Waseem-ur-Rehman, Hanif Pochi, Najam Chughtai, Arif Lakhani, Asif Haji Karim, Javed Qadri, Aslam Nathani and others.
While highlighting numerous issues, Leader of Jodia Bazaar delegation Haroon Agar pointed out that skim milk, which was not a luxury item, was subjected to imposition of Sales Tax which is a serious anomaly that raises the cost of this important household products. Hence, the Federal Board of Revenue should be approached with a request to look into the possibility of exempting this product from Sales Tax, he added.
He further mentioned that due to massive number of Kunda Connection all over Jodia Bazaar, the area frequently undergoes massive load shedding every day which creates a lot of problems even for the legitimate consumers of KE who, despite paying all their outstanding dues, have to suffer badly due to someone else’s misconduct.
“KCCI must take up this matter with higher authorities at KE so that the utility service provider could be convinced to minimize load shedding and remove all Kunda connections in this area where massive trading activities of up to billions of rupees take place every day.
He further highlighted the grievances being faced by traders of Jodia Bazaar due to massive smuggling of various products including milk, spices and plastic etc. which were entering Pakistan in bulk quantities from Afghanistan via Chaman, making the legal trade of all these products uncompetitive in the local markets.
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has vowed to continue its efforts to stop money laundering through real estate and precious metals and stones, including gold and jewellery.
FBR Chairman Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed that FBR will continue implementing the AML/CFT regulations in order to curb the menace of money laundering through real estate and precious metals and stones, including gold and jewellery.
The chairman issued the statement on the major achievement of completing actions on Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBS) in the FATF action plan I just one reporting cycle and one year ahead of the deadline in September 2022.
The Chairman FBR Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed congratulated DG DNFBPs, Mr. Mohammad Iqbal, and his team for the tireless efforts to complete the actions on DNFBPs in a short span of three months and one year ahead of the deadlines.
The FATF plenary in its public statement has noted that Pakistan has now satisfied the requirements of most of its action items under the 2021 action plan, ahead of deadlines and in its first reporting cycle.
In June 2021, the FATF plenary had approved a seven actions new action plan for Pakistan, focusing on combating money laundering. This action plan contained two actions specific to DNFBPs, in particular, the real estate agents and Dealers in Precious Metals and Stones (DMPS). FBR was already designated as AML/CFT regulatory authority for real estate agents, DPMS and accountants other than those registered with ICAP and ICMAP under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010, through amendments made in September 2020.
Since the designation of FBR as the AML/CFT regulatory authority, FBR issued AML/CFT regulations for its regulated entities and also embarked upon an extensive outreach to educate and facilitate the DNFBPs on implementation of the new AML/CFT regime. A dedicated portal was made available on FBR website, which contains comprehensive guidance documents and other information for the DNFBPs. FBR also launched a customized mobile App for the registration by DNFBPs, screening the lists of proscribed /designated persons and generating Suspicious Transaction Reports (SRTs). A detailed supervisory plan was chalked out for offsite and onsite supervision of the DNFBPs.
Since June 2021, FBR has carried out onsite inspections of a large number of DNFBPs and imposed a wide range of penalties on the delinquent entities. The real estate associations were also taken on board for the implementation of the AML/CFT obligations.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Thursday kept Pakistan in the grey list or increased monitoring list with an acknowledgment of completing almost all the action plans.
Pakistan has been on the grey list for deficiencies in its counter-terror financing and anti-money laundering regimes since June 2018.
Announcing the decision, FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer said that Pakistan had to complete two concurrent action plans with a total of 34 items. “It has now addressed or largely addressed 30 of the items,” he said.
“Its most recent action plan from June this year, which largely focused on money laundering deficiencies, was issued after the FATF’s regional partner — the Asia Pacific Group — identified a number of serious issues.
“Overall, Pakistan is making good progress on this new action plan. Four out of the seven items are now addressed or largely addressed.”
He said that this included showing that financial supervisors are conducting on-site and off-site checking on non-financial sector businesses and enacting legislative amendments to improve international cooperation.
Commenting on the action plan devised in 2018 which focused on terror financing, the FATF president said that Pakistan was still assessed to have largely addressed 26 out of 27 items.
“Pakistan has taken a number of important steps but needs to further demonstrate that investigations and prosecutions are being pursued against the senior leadership of UN designated terror groups,” he said.
All these changes are about helping authorities stop corruption, preventing terrorism and organized criminals from benefitting from their crimes, he said, thanking the government for their “continued strong commitment” to the process.
Responding to a question about whether Pakistan would be blacklisted for its failure to act against those on the UN terrorism list, Dr Pleyer said that the country had completed 30 items out of 34 on two action plans.
“This shows the clear commitment of the Pakistani government so there is no discussion on blacklisting Pakistan and the FATF urges the country to address the remaining four items,” he said, adding that the government was cooperating with the financial watchdog.
Pakistan will remain on enhanced follow-up, and will continue to report back to the APG on progress to strengthen its implementation of AML/CFT measures. Pakistan’s fourth progress report is due 1 February 2022.
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday issued the following Karachi Interbank Offered Rates (KIBOR) on October 21, 2021.
| Tenor | BID | OFFER |
| 1 – Week | 7.22 | 7.72 |
| 2 – Week | 7.26 | 7.76 |
| 1 – Month | 7.33 | 7.83 |
| 3 – Month | 8.08 | 8.33 |
| 6 – Month | 8.44 | 8.69 |
| 9 – Month | 8.71 | 9.21 |
| 1 – Year | 8.93 | 9.43 |
KARACHI: The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday gained 322 points on expected resumption of IMF program.
The KSE-100 index closed at 45,821 points as against previous day’s closing of 45,500 points, showing an increase of 322 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that a clear signal of concluding IMF review and resumption of IMF Package by Shaukat Tarin swayed the index to add a total of 665 points during the session, which has cumulatively added around 3000 points since the near term bottom of 43200 points.
Bank and E&P stocks contributed the most, whereas selling pressure was witnessed in Technology and Cyclicals (Cement and Steel) sectors.
After making an intra-day high, Investors resorted to profit booking that brought the net gains to reach 322 points at the end of session.
Anticipation of interest rate hike by SBP in the coming monetary policy helped the banking sector stocks to stage a rally, and E&P stocks inched up on the prospects of US$100/bbl for international crude oil price.
Among scrips, BOP topped the volumes with 25.5 million shares, followed by TELE (24.2 million) and HUMNL (23.8 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+220 points), E&P (+97 points), Fertilizer (+80 points), Cement (+31 points) and Chemical (+29 points).
Volumes increased from 308.1 million shares to 338.3 million shares (+10 per cent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 29 per cent to reach US$ 76.8 million as against US$ 59.7 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BOP, TELE, HUMNL, WTL and UNITY, which formed 34 per cent of total volumes.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued a stern warning to inquiry officers, cautioning them of potential disciplinary action for prolonged delays in submitting inquiry reports.
(more…)