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  • Pakistan among top 10 improvers in World Bank’s ease of doing business

    Pakistan among top 10 improvers in World Bank’s ease of doing business

    ISLAMABAD: The World Bank on Thursday said that the enactment of six regulatory reforms has landed Pakistan among the world’s top 10 business climate improvers.

    A study of the World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2020 said that due to a concerted improvement in business regulation, Pakistan climbed 28 places and rose to a rank of 108 in the global ease of Doing Business rankings this year from 136 the previous year.

    “This rise is significant and made possible by collective and coordinated actions of Federal Government and Provincial Governments of Sindh and Punjab over the past year,” said Illango Patchamuthu, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan. “The accelerated reform agenda has many noteworthy features to improve quality of regulations, reduce time and streamline processes. This momentum needs to be sustained in the coming years for Pakistan to continue to make progress.”

    The reforms that helped the country improve its ranking are significant. The country has made starting a business easier by expanding the functionalities of the online one-stop-shop. This reduced the number of procedures required to set up a business from 10 to five and improved the economy’s score for starting a business. Additionally, in Lahore, the Labor Department registration fee was abolished.

    Authorities made the approval process for obtaining a construction permit easier and faster in both Karachi and Lahore. In Karachi, the process was also made safer by ensuring that building quality inspections take place regularly. Pakistan also eased the process for paying taxes by introducing online payment modules for value added taxes and corporate income taxes. The government also lowered the corporate income tax rate for the 2018 fiscal year. This reform reduced the number of payments from 47 to 34 and the total number of hours required to comply with tax requirements per year from 294 to 283.

    Pakistan also made it easier to get electricity and register property. Karachi and Lahore enforced service delivery time frames and launched an online portal for new applications. In addition, the country increased the transparency of electricity tariff changes. Karachi made property registration faster by making it easier to execute and register a deed at the Office of the Sub-Registrar. Lahore increased the transparency of the land administration system by publishing its fee schedule online. Lastly, in the area of trading across borders, Pakistan enhanced the integration of various agencies in the Web-Based One Customs (WEBOC) electronic system and ensured coordination of joint physical inspections at the port.

    Pakistan continues to perform best on the protecting minority investors indicator, earning the maximum possible points on the extent of ownership and control index, which measures governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control. Globally, Pakistan is in the top 30 economies on this measure.

    Going forward, Pakistan has other opportunities for improvement in the areas measured by Doing Business. For example, on enforcing contracts, the country ranks 156th. It takes 1,071 days to resolve a commercial dispute in Pakistan, almost twice the average among OCED high-income economies.

  • FATF gives Pakistan four months to comply with action plan

    FATF gives Pakistan four months to comply with action plan

    ISLAMABAD: Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday set a deadline of four months for Pakistan to improve action plan against laundering and terror financing.

    At a press conference in Paris, France the officials of FATF expressed concerns over implementation of action plan by the Pakistani authorities.

    FATF strongly urged Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020. Otherwise, should significant and sustainable progress not be made across the full range of its action plan by the next Plenary.

    It has been observed that action taken by Pakistan was not sufficient to address its Terror Financing risks. These include remaining deficiencies in demonstrating a sufficient understanding of Pakistan’s transnational Terror Financing risks.

    Pakistan’s failure to complete its action plan in line with the agreed timelines and in light of the terror financing risks emanating from the jurisdiction.

    To date, Pakistan has only largely addressed five of 27 action items, with varying levels of progress made on the rest of the action plan.

    In a statement, the ministry of finance said that the FATF Plenary meeting was held in Paris from 13-18 October 2019. The Pakistan delegation was led by Muhammad Hammad Azhar, Minister for Economic Affairs Division.

    The FATF meeting considered Pakistan’s progress report on the FATF Action Plan and Pakistan’s APG Mutual Evaluation report (MER).

    Pakistan’s delegation reaffirmed its political commitment to fully implement the Action Plan.

    The Plenary meeting decided to maintain status quo on the FATF Action Plan and allow the usual 12 months observation period for the APG MER.

    The delegation also held sideline meetings with various delegations and briefed them about the progress made by Pakistan on the FATF Action Plan and steps taken for strengthening its AML/CFT framework.

    A session on technical assistance and training needs of Pakistan was also organized in collaboration with UNODC and APG Secretariat which was attended by a number of interested countries and multilateral agencies including China, USA, UK, Canada, Japan, EU, World Bank, IMF, ADB, and UNODC.

  • NAB establishes AML/CFT cell

    NAB establishes AML/CFT cell

    ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday established Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/ Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) cell at the bureau.

    The cell will be headed by Zahir Shah, Director General, Operation, NAB Headquarters, Islamabad and would be comprised of the following officers:

    01. Zafar Iqbal, Director Monitoring

    02. Mufti Abdul Haq, Additional Director/Desk Officer

    03. Jahanzeb Fareed, Banking Expert

    04. Sohail Ahmed, Banking Expert

    05. Nasir Mehmood Mughal, Senior Legal Consultant (Prosecution Division)

    The main responsibilities of the cell would include compliance, monitoring, analysis and coordination with national FATF Secretariat and relevant stakeholders.

  • Pakistan’s weekly forex reserves increase by $149.7 million

    Pakistan’s weekly forex reserves increase by $149.7 million

    KARACHI: The total liquid foreign exchange reserves of the country have increased by $149.7 million to $15.142 billion by week ended October 11, 2019 as compared with $14.992 billion a week ago, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.

    The reserves held by State Bank witnessed increase of $56.1 million to $7.813 billion by week ended October 11 as compared with $7.757 billion.

    The reserves held by commercial banks increased by $93.6 million to $7.329 billion as compared with $7.235 billion.

  • Foreign investment grows by 51pc during first quarter

    Foreign investment grows by 51pc during first quarter

    KARACHI: The total inflow of foreign private investment increased by 51 percent growth during first quarter (July-September) of 2019/2020, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.

    The total foreign private investment increased to $565 million during the first quarter of current fiscal year as compared with $374 million in the same period of the last fiscal year.

    The foreign direct investment (FDI) posted nominal decline of 3.1 percent to $542 million during the period under review as compared with $559 million in the same period of the last fiscal year.

    The inflows under FDI were $763 million during July – September 2019, which were 5.4 percent lower when compared with inflows of $806 million in the same period of the last year.

    The outflows under FDI were declined by 11 percent to $221 million as compared with $247 million.

    The foreign investment in capital market witnessed 112.2 percent increase during the first quarter of current fiscal year.

    The portfolio investment recorded $22.7 million inflows during July – September 2019 as against outflows of $185 million in the corresponding period of the last year.

  • Pakistan’s exchange rate reflecting actual economic conditions: IMF

    Pakistan’s exchange rate reflecting actual economic conditions: IMF

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) affirmed on Wednesday that Pakistan’s exchange rate now better reflects the actual economic conditions of the country.

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  • SECP registration reaches to 105,407 companies

    SECP registration reaches to 105,407 companies

    ISLAMABAD: The total number of registered companies with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has topped at 105,407 with addition of 1,392 new companies in September 2019, according to a statement issued on Friday.

    The SECP registered a total 1,392 new companies in September 2019, raising the total number of incorporated companies to 105,407.

    The incorporation in September 2019 comprises 69 percent private limited, 27 percent single member companies.

    The remaining 4 percent companies include public unlisted companies, trade organizations, foreign companies, Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) and not for profit associations.

    During the month, 51 new companies have been incorporated with foreign shareholders mainly from China, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea South, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, the UAE, UK the US and Yemen.

    Digital solutions deployed by the regulator made companies registration and post incorporation compliance simple, faster and cost effective.

    In September 2019, 96 percent of companies registered online through SECP’s eService and 50 percent of companies incorporated the same day.

    Most importantly, 85 foreign applicants completed registration of companies from overseas using eService.

    In new registrations, trading sector took lead with 239 companies, construction and services with 173 each, information technology with 148, tourism with 79 and real estate development with 54 companies.

    Similarly, 52 companies were registered in food and beverages, 48 in education 38 each in engineering and textile, 37 in corporate agricultural farming, 32 in marketing, 24 in transport, 21 in healthcare, and pharmaceutical each, 20 in communication, 17 companies registered in logging.

    Moreover, 16 companies were each from chemical, auto and allied, cosmetics and toiletries, and steel and allied sector and 15 each, power generation with 13, broadcasting and telecasting with 12 and 92 companies were registered in other sectors.

    During the month, the highest numbers of companies i.e. 503 were registered in CRO Islamabad.

    The CROs in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta, and Sukkur registered, 413, 247, 78, 69, 40, 28, 12 and 2 companies respectively.

    The increasing trend in online registration of companies demonstrates success of reforms and digitalization recently undertaken by SECP. It is to emphasize that through SECP’s eService, registration of a company is now a simple one-step procedure that can be completed within four working hours.

    The steps of company name reservation, incorporation application, appointment of Chief Executive Officer are now merged. By providing additional information in online company incorporation form, a company can also get registration with FBR, EOBI and provincial social security, labor department and excise & taxations departments of Punjab and Sindh.

    Moreover, the browser compatibility of SECP’s eServcies portal has also been improved to match with all commonly used browsers.

  • Significant decline in import bill sharply narrows trade deficit by 35 percent in first quarter

    Significant decline in import bill sharply narrows trade deficit by 35 percent in first quarter

    ISLAMABAD: Significant decline in import bill helped to sharply narrow the trade deficit by 35 percent during first quarter of current fiscal year, according to data released Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.

    The trade deficit narrowed by 35 percent to $5.72 billion during July – September 2019 of current fiscal year as compared with deficit of $8.79 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

    The total import bill of the country fell by 21 percent to $11.25 billion during first quarter of the current fiscal year as compared with $14.16 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.

    Meanwhile, the exports have posted 3 percent growth to $5.52 billion during July – September 2019 as compared with $5.37 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.

  • Financial institutions report 219 suspicious transactions since AML/CFT regulatory framework launch: SECP

    Financial institutions report 219 suspicious transactions since AML/CFT regulatory framework launch: SECP

    ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has said around 219 Suspicious Transactions Reports (STRs) have been generated by financial institutions since launch of its Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/Counter Financing Terrorism (CFT) regulatory framework.

    The SECP in a statement on Thursday said that its risk based approach for effective implementation of AML/CFT regulatory framework ensued significant improvement in filing of Suspicious Transactions Reports (STR) with FMU.

    To align itself with FATF’s standards (40 recommendations), SECP developed a single set of regulations namely SECP AML/CFT Regulations in June 2018.

    SECP also developed a comprehensive guideline to help regulated persons in creating an effective AML/CFT risk assessment and compliance framework.

    Since the promulgation of consolidated AML/CFT regulations, the financial institutions have generated a total of 219 STRs, as compared to only 13 in the last eight years.

    The SECP conducted 167 inspections focusing on AML/CFT compliance in the cases of 72 Securities Brokers, 27 NBFCs, 13 Insurance Companies and 55 High Risk NPOs.

    Significant penalties have been imposed for non-compliances with the said Regulations.

    Financial Institutions have undertaken remedial measures to ensure effective compliance with the said Regulations. Automated screening software has been deployed by many Financial Institutions to screen the proscribed persons.

    The regulated entities now also have access to GoAML system of the FMU for online filing of STR.

    The SECP successfully made transition from one-size fits all to a risk based approach to implement a consolidated AML/CFT regulatory framework in its regulated financial sector comprising of stock and commodity brokers, NBFCs, Modarabas and the Insurers/Takaful operators.

    Further to effectively identify assess and understand the ML/TF risks that Pakistan faces, a National ML/ TF Risk Assessment was undertaken in 2019 to assess ML/TF vulnerabilities that are inherent within the financial sector including banking, NBFC, brokers and insurance.

    NRA aimed to put in place actions and control measures to mitigate those risks. FMU led the task in collaboration with stakeholders including ministries, law enforcement agencies, SBP and SECP.

    The risk assessment and understanding enabled SECP and the regulated entities to implement the much needed control mechanism to check potential abuse by money launderers and terrorist financiers.

    Subsequent to NRA, SECP embarked on a comprehensive awareness raising program to develop the risk understanding and AML Obligations of the regulated sectors and shared the NRA 2019 with its regulated sectors.

    SECP’s continuous efforts have resulted in improvement in compliance level of the regulated entities and effective control measures are now implemented to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

    The SECP has also revamped its overall risk based supervisory mechanism and works closely with national stakeholder’s inter-alia FMU, SBP etc. for mutual peer review and evaluation of SECP’s regulated financial sector.

    Eversince the Commission has adopted a risk-based approach to supervision and monitoring in the area of AML/CFT, it has completed sector risk assessment and enhanced risk based supervisory activities encompassing all high-risk entities and is spreading the scope of supervision to next tier moderate risk entities.

    Remedial actions and dissuasive sanctions on non-compliance are now part of it’s enforcement regime.

    Recently, the Asia-Pacific Group of Money Laundering (APG) has adopted Pakistan’s Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) in its 22nd Annual Meeting held in Canberra, Australia from 18-23 August 2019, which has now been uploaded on APG’s website as per procedure.

    It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan’s Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) provides a summary of the AML/CFT measures in place in Pakistan as of October 2018.

    A large component of the above reforms were implemented after October 2018 and are not reflected in the MER published now by APG.