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  • Trade deficit narrows by 27pc in 2019/2020

    Trade deficit narrows by 27pc in 2019/2020

    ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed by 27 percent to $23.18 billion in fiscal year 2019/2020 as against the deficit of $31.8 billion in the preceding fiscal year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Friday.

    The import bill of the country significantly declined by 18.61 percent to $44.57 billion during July – June 2019/2020 as compared with $54.76 billion in the same period of the preceding year.

    The exports also fell by 6.84 percent to $21.38 billion in the fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with $22.95 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

    The fall in import bill and export receipts may be attributed to COVID-19 which adversely affected the international trade and lower forecast the global economic growth.

  • Meezan Bank’s Shariah Board approves guidelines for COVID related refinance schemes

    Meezan Bank’s Shariah Board approves guidelines for COVID related refinance schemes

    KARACHI: Meezan Bank’s Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) has approved guidelines for COVID-19 related refinance schemes intended to provide relief to businesses and individuals during these challenging times.

    In the 47th meeting of Meezan Bank’s Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) was recently held as an online event, with the goal of preventing contagion and staying consistent with the recommendations of global and local health authorities and the Government.

    This was the first Shariah Supervisory Board meeting conducted completely online where members from across different countries participated via video conferencing.

    The meeting was chaired by Justice (Retd.) Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani and was attended by Dr. Muhammad Imran Ashraf Usmani, Sheikh Esam Mohamed Ishaq (Bahrain) along with other members of the SSB.

    Meezan Bank’s Founding President and CEO – Irfan Siddiqui, Deputy CEO – Ariful Islam and senior management of the Bank were also present at the meeting.

    In view of the current situation and the outlook for the coming months, the Bank’s SSB has approved guidelines for COVID-19 related re-finance schemes intended to provide relief to businesses and individuals during these challenging times.

    The Board reviewed several key issues including policies adopted by the Bank as well as the corresponding contingency plans ensuring that the Bank continues to serve its customers normally despite the challenges faced due to COVID-19.

    Products and structures for providing relief to customers were also discussed in detail after which the SSB approved a comprehensive set of guidelines to ensure that SMEs get adequate support to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on their activities.

    The SSB also approved Smart Remittance Account that will enable Overseas Pakistanis to apply for bank accounts online either in PKR or USD currency from anywhere outside Pakistan.

    This account will permit Overseas Pakistanis to remit money either in PKR or USD and to invest in Shariah-compliant alternative of “Overseas Pakistanis Saving Scheme” announced by Government of Pakistan (GoP).

    Furthermore, the structure for the re-opening of GoP Ijarah Sukuk was also approved by the Board, making it the first time that a re-opening mechanism will be introduced in any Sukuk issued in Pakistan. The re-opening of Sukuk is expected to bring depth in the Pakistani Sukuk market.

    The SSB appreciated the Bank’s ‘Work from Home’ policy amid the COVID-19 crisis; which has been adopted to protect the wellbeing of its employees, customers and stakeholders and expressed its overall satisfaction on the Shariah compliance environment and operations of the Bank.

  • Competition Commission approves 59 mergers, acquisitions in 2019/2020

    Competition Commission approves 59 mergers, acquisitions in 2019/2020

    ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has processed and granted approval to 59 merger and acquisition applications during fiscal year 2019-2020, against the annual target of 50, showing the CCP’s promising performance to facilitate the local and foreign investors despite the limitations caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

    A statement issued on Thursday out of the total 59 approvals, 51 were acquisitions, 5 mergers and 3 joint ventures applications.

    The major sectors where these mergers and acquisitions took place include automotive, household products, food, sugar, oil, power, freight, LNG, insurance, agriculture, coal mining, logistics, pharmaceutical, chemicals, petroleum, healthcare, leasing, plastics, textile, hospitality, financial services, digital payments, mobile phone, investment, IT-Hardware, wind power, and microfinance banking.

    Moreover, the CCP also processed and granted Exemptions to 43 undertakings under the Section 5 of Competition Act, 2010.

    CCP grants exemptions to notified agreements between companies from the prohibition of Section 4 of the Competition Act, on the basis of an individual assessment.

    Restrictive agreements qualify for exemption if their benefits to general welfare (product improvement, technical or economic progress, benefits to consumer) outweigh their restrictive effects on competition.

    During the outgoing fiscal year, the CCP complete 14 inquiries, issued 78 Show cause notices, and passed 15 orders. An important enquiry was concluded In the matter of alleged bid rigging in the tenders issued by Power Distributions companies for the procurement of Line Hardware material.

    Similarly, the CCP issued to the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association and its member sugar mills in 2009 for cartelization.

    These sugar mills had not challenged the CCP’s show cause notices, but legal action had not been started against them in the past.

    Even in the challenging time of COVID-19 pandemic, the CCP ensured its smooth functioning by extending facilitation to the stakeholders. An Online Merger and Acquisition Application filing system was launched to facilitate the local and foreign investors in filing merger applications online.

    Furthermore, to ensure health and safety of the respondents amid COVID-19, the parties have been allowed to respond the show-cause notices issued to them in the hearings using video conference and other online tools.

    An online application for granting exemptions has also been prepared and will be launched soon.

    The CCP issued a Policy Note to the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) asking for an immediate reinstatement of the cost audit of companies (particularly Cement, Sugar, Vegetable Ghee/Cooking Oil, Fertilizers, and Wheat flour companies), so that credible and verified cost information is available to assist in factual (rather than speculative) policy making.

    In order to curb the bid rigging in tenders and public procurements, the CCP has prepared an in-house IT-based Bid Rigging Analysis and Detection (BRAD) system to help detect signs of collusion in the bidding process.

    On the legal front, the Islamabad and Lahore High Courts have resumed hearings in the cases wherein the CCP’s constitutionality has been challenged by the undertakings. The government, through the Attorney General of Pakistan, has been extending full support to the CCP in resolving the pending issues.

    Certain other recent initiative include initiation of online webinars to help educate the business and consumers around Competition Law; launch of draft study on the Competition Concerns in the LPG Sector; and working on the State of Competition report after a pause of 10 years.

  • National Savings raises profit rates

    National Savings raises profit rates

    ISLAMABAD: The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) on Thursday raised profit rates of saving schemes.

    A statement issued by the CDNS stated that all the profit rates of bearer certificates had been increased.

    However, profit rates of registered saving certificates have been reduced.

    As per the decision of the CDNS the profit rates have been increased as: Behbood Saving Certificates, Pensioner Benefit Accounts and Shuhda Family Welfare Account from 9.84 percent to 9.96 percent; Defence Saving Certificates from 8.05 percent to 8.11 percent; Regular Income Certificates from 7.44 percent to 7.608 percent.

    The CDNS reduced the average profit rate of special saving certificates (registered)/accounts to 7.05 percent from 7.15 percent.

    Similarly, short term savings certificates for 3-, 6- and 12-month have been reduced to 6.80 percent, 6.76 percent and 6.66 percent from 7.72 percent, 7.36 percent and 7.30 percent respectively.

  • Pakistan’s weekly foreign exchange reserves increase by $1.24bn

    Pakistan’s weekly foreign exchange reserves increase by $1.24bn

    KARACHI: The foreign exchange reserves of the country increased by $1.24 billion to $17.97 billion by week ended June 26, 2020, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.

    The foreign exchange reserves of the country were at $16.73 billion by week ended June 19, 2020.

    The official foreign exchange reserves of the SBP increased by $1.27 billion to $11.231 billion by week ended June 26, 2020. The official reserves of the central bank were at $9.961 billion a week ago.

    The SBP said that during the week ended June 26, 2020, the central bank received around $2,046 million official inflows, including $737 million from World Bank, $503 million from Asian Development Bank, $500 million from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and $300 million as GOP loan disbursement from China.

    After incorporating government external debt payments of $ 809 million, SBP reserves increased by $ 1,270 million to $ 11,231 million.

    During the current week, SBP has received additional $1,000 million as GOP loan disbursement from China.

    These funds will be part of SBP weekly reserves data as of July 03, 2020 to be released on July 09, 2020.

  • SBP seeks feedback on automaton of tax refund payment

    SBP seeks feedback on automaton of tax refund payment

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has invited business community to provide feedback on an ongoing project of automation of payment of tax refunds by the central bank.

    Dr. Reza Baqir, Governor, SBP held the online meeting with the business community today to seek feedback on an ongoing project of automation of payment of tax refunds by SBP.

    The meeting was attended by the office bearers of Pakistan Business Council (PBC), Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FPCCI) and Chambers of Commerce and Industries of various cities.

    Governor SBP in his opening remarks introduced SBP’s Automation of Payment of Tax Refunds Project saying that after automation of government’s revenue collections, efforts are underway by SBP to automate the government’s payments to ensure transparency, efficiency and public convenience.

    He said that improving ease of doing business is one of the shared goals of the government and SBP for its significant potential impact on boosting economic activity in the country.

    Governor Baqir remarked that Automation of payment of Tax Refunds Project is a part of SBP efforts in this direction in collaboration with FBR and Pakistan Customs. Adding further, he said that since the project is ultimately going to benefit the businesses, it is important that the system is developed in consultation with all the stakeholders including the businesses.

    He emphasized that, in this regard, feedback of businesses is very important since they are the key stakeholders.

    A senior SBP official gave a detailed presentation on the project elaborating that the project constituted two broader components, automation of payment of duty drawback claims and the automation of payment of sales tax refunds.

    After highlighting the issues in the existing mechanisms he explained that how the automation will simplify the processes and bring efficiency in terms of time saving and human resources.

    He highlighted that there will be minimal human intervention in processing and payment of refund claims as the system generated payment messages will be sent to SBP on real time basis through an interface between FBR/Pakistan Customs and SBP for crediting the funds in the claimants’ account.

    The representatives of Chambers of Commerce appreciated the initiative of SBP and provided valuable feedback. They also assured their cooperation to SBP in the development of this project of national importance.

  • Equity market gains 89 points in mixed trading

    Equity market gains 89 points in mixed trading

    KARACHI: The equity market gained 89 points on Thursday in a mixed trading activity, analysts said.

    The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 34,978 points as against 34,889 points showing an increase of 89 points.

    Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the KSE-100 index went up by 288 points during the session, which was contributed by a mix of sectors including Cements and Fertilizer sectors (which hit day’s high in early trading, but faced profit booking in later part of the session). Banking sector gained further as investors showed renewed interest post release of CPI data.

    Among Cyclicals, Engineering (Steel) showed better performance contributed by MUGHAL and ASTL primarily, trading at and near upper circuits. Similar price performance was witnessed in Pharma stocks, among which SEARL and FEROZ remained prominent.

    Technology sector contributed most to the traded volumes with 105.3 million shares, followed by Cement (51.7 million) and Banks (27.3 million). Among scrips, WTL topped 52.6 million shares, followed by TRG (28.6 million) and MLCF (21.1 million).

    Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+58 points), Technology (+24 points), Food (+16 points), Pharma (+14 points), Power (-37 points).

    Volumes increased further from 315 million shares to 383.1 million shares (+22 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 17 percent to reach US$ 74.9 million as against US$ 63.9 million.

    Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, TRG, MLCF, PAEL and HASCOL, which formed 37 percent of total volumes.

    Stocks that contributed positively to the index include NESTLE (+20 points), MCB (+19 points), UBL (+18 points), BAHL (+18 points) and EFERT (+14 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HUBC (-31 points), FFC (-13 points), DAWH (-13 points), MEBL (-8 points), and MARI (-8 points).

  • Rupee strengthens by Rs1.16 against dollar on inflows

    Rupee strengthens by Rs1.16 against dollar on inflows

    KARACHI: The Pak Rupee made significant gain of Rs1.16 against dollar on Thursday owing to ease in demand for import and corporate payments and substantial inflows during past week.

    The rupee ended Rs166.89 to the dollar from June 30, 2020 closing of Rs168.05 in interbank foreign exchange market.

    The currency market was remained closed for public dealing on July 01, 2020 on account of bank holiday.

    Currency dealers said that the rupee was under pressure due to payment demand by end of fiscal year.

    However, they said that the inflows from international financial institutions helped the rupee to gain the value.

    The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has received $1.3 billion as government of Pakistan loan disbursements from Chinese Banks this week.

    This brings the total amount of official inflows received since June 23, 2020 to around $3 billion.

    Experts said that the transfers would also help the central bank to improve foreign exchange reserves.

  • SBP directs banks, exporters to submit undertaking for true e-form

    SBP directs banks, exporters to submit undertaking for true e-form

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has directed banks and exporters to submit undertaking for true e-form under export finance scheme.

    According to a circular issued on July 01, 2020 the banks shall provide details of exporters including name and address, NTN. Besides, the banks will also provide number and amount of export proceeds.

    Furthermore, both banks and exporters shall undertake that:
    In case of mismatch between the commodity and HS code provided, the entry will not be considered for performance/entitlement until rectified.

    The contents of subject MS excel file titled[Bank Prefix-Exporter’s NTN-Serial Number] are correct and complied with relevant instructions of the EFS.

    The exports on usance basis reported in the above referred statement are against irrevocable letter(s) of credit which is/are eligible for negotiation and the usance bills in respect thereof have not been negotiated with a scheduled bank in Pakistan except those mentioned there against.

    The statement does not include:

    I. Any export of commodities which do not qualify for export finance under the Scheme.

    II. Any export made under a Contract/LC against which they obtained export finance from any bank under Part-I of the Scheme (this clause is required in case of EF-1 Statements only).

    The SBP further said that through circular letter no. 12 dated June 26, 2020 wherein banks have been advised to get verified their EE-1/EF-1 statements and submit the same to concerned SBP-BSC offices.

    As it is in the knowledge of banks that in order to streamline the process and ensure smooth execution of workflow, hard copy submission of EE-1/EF-1 Statements has already been dispensed with and only soft copies of EE-1/EF-1 statement on the excel format attached at Annexure-I shall be submitted by banks.

    In addition, banks shall submit scanned copy of original undertaking duly signed by the exporter and the authorized personnel of the bank on the format attached at Annexure-II. Banks shall attach the scanned copy of the undertaking in the email containing soft copy of EE-1/EF-1 statement.

    The soft copies of EE-1/EF-1Statements of Karachi region shall be sent electronically to FEOD-HOK, through bank personnel’s official email address on: [email protected];whereas, for regions other than Karachi, the respective SBP-BSC Office will provide email addresses to banks’ Regional Heads.

    The following must be ensured by banks at the time of submission of email containing soft copy of EE-1/EF-1statement and undertaking:

    1. Email is properly titled as “Verification of EE-1/EF-1Statement: M/s [Exporter Name]”
    2. Excel file is properly titled as “[Bank Prefix –Exporter’s NTN –Serial Number]”.
    3. Single consolidated statement is submitted for each exporter having Advance Payment and Post-shipment entries.
    4. E-Form No. and NTN is in the correct format.
    5. Currency, Schedule and Sales Term is statedasper formatprovided in the list in drop-down of the relevant column in MS Excel file.
    6. All entries have been reported in ITRS.
    7. All shipping documents have been submitted for shipments against Advance Payments.

    The SBP said that soft copies of EE-1/EF-1statements should be submitted at FEOD Karachi and Field Offices along with undertaking strictly as per the formats provided.

  • Date extended to exchange Rs40,000 bearer prize bonds

    Date extended to exchange Rs40,000 bearer prize bonds

    ISLAMABAD: The ministry of finance on Thursday extended the last date to exchange bearer prize bonds of Rs40,000 denomination up to December 30, 2020.

    The last date to exchange the bearer prize bonds was expired on June 30, 2020.

    The government on June 24, 2019 announced to discontinue the circulation of Rs40,000 denomination national prize bonds.

    The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) allowed the investors to exchange the unregistered prize bonds through three different modes. The SBP has barred the exchange of bearer prize bonds against cash.

    However, the bonds can be redeemed against registered or premium prize bonds or can be converted into national saving schemes or face value (direct transfer to the bank account of bond holder).

    The bearer instruments have been known as parking lot for undocumented economy. Therefore, the government launched registered prize bonds of Rs40,000 denomination in March 2017 which could be purchased against certain requirements including Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) and valid bank account.

    According to Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) data made available on Friday people surrendered around Rs256 billion bearer prize bonds of Rs40,000 denomination since the ban imposed June 2019 for documentation of the economy.

    The data showed the total stock of investment made in bearer bonds of Rs40,000 denomination was Rs258 billion by May 2019. The remaining stock of bearer bonds is Rs2 billion by March 2020.