A tax office of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has filed a reference against the chairman of a prominent Islamic bank, accusing him of engaging in benami transactions to obtain properties.
(more…)Author: Faisal Shahnawaz
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Notification sought for simplified return for SME taxpayers
KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been urged to issue a simplified income tax return forms for taxpayers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
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Banks disburse Rs1366 billion as agri loan in 2020-2021
KARACHI: The banks have disbursed an amount of Rs1.36 trillion as credit to agriculture sector during fiscal year 2020-2021, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Monday.
The central bank said that credit disbursement to agriculture sector had witnessed a growth of 12 per cent over the preceding fiscal year, despite the ongoing challenges posed by Covid-19 pandemic and climate change.
The disbursement is collective effort of 49 financial institutions which managed to achieve together 91 per cent of their assigned target of Rs1,500 billion for the year.
The outstanding agricultural credit stood at Rs628 billion as on end June 2021,witnessing a growth of over 8 per cent over end June 2020, complements the overall positive outlook of agriculture sector which grew at 2.77 per cent during FY21.
However, the number of agricultural credit borrowers witnessed a decline of 5 per cent, falling from 3.7 million in FY20 to 3.5 million in FY21, primarily due to limited outreach owing to ongoing pandemic.
During FY21, the commercial banks, specialized banks,and Islamic banks posted a satisfactory performance, by disbursing Rs1,210 billion, against their target of Rs1,277 billion, thus achieving 95 per cent of their assigned disbursement target. However, microfinance banks as a group achieved 73 per cent of their target by disbursing agricultural loans of Rs132 billion to small farmers. Likewise, the microfinance institutions/rural support programs collectively achieved 57 per cent of their target by disbursing Rs23 billion to small and marginalized farmers.
SBP, together with the government and private sector, made concerted efforts for the development and commercialization of the agricultural sector through provision of formal financial services.
Further, the proactive response by SBP to combat the threats posed by COVID-19 bolstered the economy and resulted in a rather quick rebound in economic activities across all major sectors including agricultural.
Besides, reducing the policy rate by 625 basis points, SBP also allowed banks to offer principal deferment and restructuring of agriculture loans to help combat economic disruptions.
As of April 2021, around 2 million borrowers in the agriculture and microfinance sectors have availed the deferred principal and restructured loan option with outstanding loans amounting to Rs132 billion.
SBP‘s programs and policy interventions addressed the cross-cutting issue of food security enabling regulatory environment, greater inclusion of women, and advancement in farm practices.
Further, SBP facilitated banks’ partnership with provincial Land Revenue authorities for the integration and use of automated land records for loaning. The government’s crop loan insurance and livestock loan insurance schemes also played an instrumental role in encouraging banks to provide loans to small farmers.
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Rupee falls by 45 paisas against dollar in interbank
KARACHI: The Pak Rupee (PKR) fell by 45 paisas against dollar on Monday due to higher demand for import payment.
The rupee ended at Rs163.90 to the dollar from last Friday’s closing of Rs163.45 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
Currency experts said that the market opened after two weekly holidays, which put pressure on demand.
They said that the high international oil prices were also a major reason for the dollar demand.
The rupee remained under pressure since the start of the current fiscal year. The rupee lost Rs6.45 to the dollar as compared with the closing of June 30, 2021 at Rs157.45 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
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SBP issues customers exchange rates for August 09
KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday issued customers’ exchange rates. The exchange rate is on the basis of weighted average rates of commercial banks.
The SBP said the data compiled and disseminated for information only.
These exchange rates are estimates that quoted by various commercial banks to their clients.
The banks provide their indicative exchange rates for commercial transactions with customers.
CURRENCY BUYING SELLING AED 44.6281 44.7224 AUD 120.4857 120.7389 CAD 130.3797 130.6530 CHF 179.0416 179.4198 CNY 25.3269 25.3766 EUR 192.6953 193.1055 GBP 227.2627 227.7532 JPY 1.4868 1.4901 SAR 43.6784 43.7691 USD 163.7799 164.1432 -
Tax credit granted on investment in share, investment
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has implemented amendments through the Finance Act, 2021, updating the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, and introducing new provisions related to tax credits for investments. Section 62 and 62A outline the eligibility and computation of tax credits for investments in shares, insurance, and health insurance.
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Lower interest rate to keep equities attractive
KARACHI: The stock market likely to stay in green during the next week owing to lower interest rate regime. Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market to continue trading in green. The low interest rate regime and pro-growth stance of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) should keep equities attractive.
Moreover, as mentioned earlier the result season should keep cyclical in limelight while reduced provisioning, and healthy fee income/capital gains should help fuel banking earnings.
That said, COVID fourth wave is a concern which may keep sentiment jittery.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is currently trading at a PER of 6.7x (2021) compared to Asia Pac regional average of 16.1x while offering a dividend yield of 6.6 per cent versus 2.4 per cent offered by the region.
The domestic bourse closed the week in green this week. The investment climate took a major sigh of relief when the trade deficit posted a 16 per cent month on month decline as per Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data.
With the USD 2.8 billion SDR allocation expected from the IMF, the reserves position is expected to consolidate further which is significantly positive given uncertainty over the external account outlook.
Moreover, the result season is ongoing and cyclical sectors are likely to post healthy earnings on a yearly basis driven by the V-shaped economic recovery. The index closed at 47,490 points, (up 435 points week on week).
Sector-wise positive contributions came from i) Commercial Banks (193 points), ii) Oil & Gas Marketing Companies (52 points), and iii) Chemical (52 points). Meanwhile, the sectors that contributed negatively majorly include i) Food & personal care (21 points) and Tobacco (7 points).
Scrip-wise positive contributors were MEBL (84 points), MCB (43 points), and HBL (41 points). Whereas, scrip-wise negative contribution came from LUCK (41 points), PSEL (36 points), and UNITY (19 points).
Foreign buying was witnessed this week of USD 3.1 million against a net sell of USD 5.4 million last week. Buying was witnessed in Technology (USD 1.8 million), Cements (USD 1.3 million) and OMCs (USD 0.2 million). On the domestic front, major selling was reported by Funds (USD 10.6 million) and Insurance (USD 6.1 million). Average volumes clocked-in at 455 million shares (up by 12 per cent week on week) while average value traded settled at USD 85 million (down by 5 per cent week).
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Share market sheds 151 points in narrow range trading
KARACHI: The share market ended down by 151 points on Friday in narrow range trading during the day.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 47,489 points as against previous day’s closing of 47,640 points, showing a decline of 151 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market largely traded in a narrow range and lost a total of 216 points.
Oil and gas marketing companies, Cement, Chemical, Refinery and Technology sectors continued seeing selling pressure from the previous couple of sessions.
LUCK saw a significant drop in the closing half hour, which brought its price below LDCP by a large margin.
Among scripts, PASL led the volumes with 66.9 million shares, followed by UNITY (35.5 million) and DSL (25.9 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology (-50 points), Cement (-34 points), Vanaspati (-25 points), Textile (-18 points), Banks (+28 points) and Glas (+21 points).
Volumes declined from 546.8 million shares to 499.7 million (-9 per cent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 11 per cent to reach US$ 83.5 million as against US$ 94.1 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include PASL, UNITY, DSL, WTL and FFL, which formed 36 per cent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include MEBL (+21 points), GHGL (+21 points), BAFL (+11 points), MCB (+7 points) and INIL (+75 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include TRG (-32 points), UNITY (-25 points), LUCK (-20 points), SYS (-13 points) and HUBC (-12 points).
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KIBOR rates for August 06, 2021
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday issued following Karachi Interbank Offered Rates (KIBOR) on August 06, 2021.
Tenor BID OFFER 1 – Week 6.93 7.43 2 – Week 6.96 7.46 1 – Month 7.02 7.52 3 – Month 7.15 7.40 6 – Month 7.34 7.59 9 – Month 7.44 7.94 1 – Year 7.53 8.03
