Railways retrieve more land

LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways have got more than eight acre land vacated from grabbers during the last two days.

According to a spokesman, the market value of the retrieved commercial, agricultural and residential land in Peshawar, Sukkur, Quetta, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Workshops is said to be in millions. The PR Directorate of Property and Land is supervising the campaign launched on the directive of the Supreme Court, said an official on Sunday. He said the drive was being monitored by all eight divisional superintendents concerned.

During the past two days, seven acre and 10 marla have been retrieved in Peshawar, two acres, two kanal and four marla in Sukkur, one acre, two kanal and nine marla in Quetta, five acres, two kanal and 15 marla in Karachi, 10 marla in Rawalpindi, one acre, six kanal and three marla in Lahore while 18 marla in Workshops Mughalpura divisions. — Staff Reporter

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SBP keeps key policy rate flat at 12 per cent

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan on Saturday announced it would keep its key policy rate unchanged at 12 per cent for the next two months in a bid to contain expected inflation in the second half of the 2011-12 fiscal year.

The announcement was in line with what the majority of analysts polled by Reuters earlier this week expected.

The central bank has left its key policy rate unchanged since cutting it by 150 basis points to 12 per cent on Oct 8, 2011.

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Pakistan, Sri Lanka sign agreements to promote cooperation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Sri Lanka on Saturday signed three memorandums of understanding (MoU) to promote cooperation in trade, technical education and media between the two countries.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa witnessed the signing ceremony here at the Prime Minister’s House along with the members of their delegations.

The first MoU was signed for cooperation in media by Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Aishaq Awan on behalf of Pakistan while Minister for External Affairs Prof GL Peiris signed on Sri Lanaka’s behalf.

Advisor to PM on Finance and Economic Affairs Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh signed the second MoU while Sri Lankan Minister for External Affairs Prof GL Peiris signed the agreement on behalf of their respective government for credit of US dollars 200 million for improving Pakistan’s export from Sri Lanka.

The third MoU was signed by Secretary Ministry of Professional and Technical Education Qamar Zaman Chaudhry and Secretary to President of Sri Lanka Lalith Weerathunga on behalf of Sri Lankan government for enhancing cooperation in technical training in different fields.

The MoU was signed for the cooperation between National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTEC) of Pakistan and Tertiary And Vocational Education Commission of Sri Lanka.

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Indian minister arriving for trade talks

LAHORE: India’s Commerce Minister Anand Sharma will walk into Pakistan through Wagah border on Monday morning at the head of big trade delegation on a three-day visit to Pakistan for talks to normalise trade relations between the two countries.

During his stay, he is expected to visit a three-day exhibition of Indian products starting on Saturday at the Lahore Expo Centre and hold a series of meetings with his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Amin Fahim, officials and businessmen in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi.

Mr Sharma was invited to visit Pakistan by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who was the first Pakistani commerce minister to visit India last year in over three decades.

The visit has already generated huge interest in the both countries as it is billed to help break the non-tariff and tariff barriers between two largest south Asian economies. The visit is a sequel to commerce secretary level talks that resumed in April last year.

The direct trade between India and Pakistan constitute less than one per cent of their respective global trade. India exported goods worth $2.33 billion to Pakistan last year while its imports from the country were a mere $330 million.

While Islamabad maintains a positive list of less than 2000 items that can be traded officially, New Delhi has erected non-tariff barriers to restrict imports from Pakistan.

Pakistan’s cabinet recently approved in principle to give MFN (most favourite nation) status to India subject to elimination of non-tariff barriers against its exports. In return for dismantling of non-tariff barriers to its exports, Islamabad has agreed to switch over to a negative list of items by the end of this month.

Indian media have recently reported that New Delhi has agreed to sign three pacts – customs cooperation, mutual recognition agreements on quality certification and grievances redressing mechanism – for the removal of non-tariff barriers. But only the first pact is ready as India has some problems with the Pakistani draft on grievances redressing and has prepared a counter-draft.

In the meanwhile, Makhdoom Amin Fahim will inaugurate the India Show organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in collaboration with India’s commerce ministry with support from Pakistan’s commerce ministry and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Around 150 Indian companies will showcase their products.

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Malaysia’s Jan palm oil stocks fall to five-month low

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s January palm oil stocks slipped to a five-month low as a decline in production outpaced a drop in exports, industry regulator Malaysian Palm Oil Board said on Friday.

Stocks in the world’s No 2 producer of the edible oil fell 2.5 per cent to 2.0 million tons from December last year, almost matching market expectations of a 2.2 per cent drop.

The still-high inventories can potentially shore up global edible oil supply in the wake of erratic weather affecting soy crops in South America.

Benchmark palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange may come under some pressure after losing 0.8 per cent at midday ahead of the data release.

“Stocks are still around 2 million tons which is enough for one-and-a-half months of exports,” said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage.

January production dropped 13.9 per cent to 1.29 million tons from a month ago on seasonally weaker yields after strong output last year with reports of some heavy rain affecting harvesting.

Planters and traders expect Malaysian output in February to decline further on weaker yields although it may not be a double-digit percentage fall as the weather has improved and there are fewer public holidays this month.

Malaysia’s January exports also dropped 13.2 per cent to 1.38 million tons as the government had not issued a tax free export quota for crude palm oil at the time and overseas buyers preferred Indonesian cargoes offered at a discount.

Traders are counting on China, a key customer of Malaysian palm oil, to start restocking in a big way after the Lunar New Year holidays in late January, and for more crude palm oil exports after the duty free quotas.

Malaysian imports of Indonesian crude palm oil rose 32.1 per cent to 167,487 tons, MPOB said.

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Gilani, Shaikh meet to discuss economy

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yuosuf Raza Gilani on Thursday held a meeting with Advisor on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh to discuss economic situation and matters related to the next budget.

Shaikh called on the premier here at the PM House and briefed him about the state of national economy.

During the meeting, he briefed Gilani on continuing progress in key areas such as domestic tax collection that has registered 26 per cent increase during the first half of the current financial year compared to the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

Gilani directed the advisor to further consolidate the stabilisation of growth of the economy with a view to leading the job creation for the youth.

The prime minister also gave guidelines regarding the provision of relief to the people in the next budget.

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Power shutdown spoils Sundar production plans

LAHORE: The hopes to start full-fledged production at Sundar Industrial Estate in view of the resumption of gas supply after one-and-a-half months dashed on Wednesday because of power breakdown which the industrialists said was sudden and devastating.

The outage continued from 8am to 6pm – the timings during which the industrialists had planned to run their factories at full production capacity to cover up the losses they had been suffering since the suspension of gas supply to the industrial estate on Dec 22.

They industrialists strongly protested against the shutdown and convened a meeting of their board of management on Thursday (today) to decide how to counter it.

“We had planned to resume full-fledge production after so many days, and had called staff for the purpose in the morning. But power shutdown did not allow us to utilise the gas which has been given to us three days a week after the suspension of its supply on Dec 22,” said the estate’s board of management president Ahsan Butt.

No official concerned of Lesco was available for comment despite several attempts.

The multi-billion rupees industrial estate has 162 operational units employing over 100,000 workers. Its total capacity is 606 units, 200 of them are under construction.

According to Mr Butt and some other industrialists, they had bound their workers to reach the factories early in the morning to start production at 8am so as to fully utilise the gas supply available only for three days a week.

But, the factory owners and workers kept waiting for the resumption of the power supply till in the evening but in vain. They returned home in dismay and anger accusing the government of deliberately destroying industrial sector.

Mr Butt said the shutdown was sudden and imposed without consulting the board of management. The chief engineer of the industrial estate was informed about the shutdown only on Tuesday night, leaving no time for preparation of an alternate production plan.

And when the Lesco authorities were asked why they did not timely consulted the board so that production was not affected, they promised to send their officials for the purpose on Thursday.

Butt said contacts with Lesco authorities concerned on Wednesday brought more sad news as they explained that the shutdown was for five days and the board would be consulted for shutdowns that would follow.

“This is clearly an attempt to totally destroy industry. We fear power shutdown till Feb 25 which means loss of billions of rupees. The loss during this five-day shutdown alone is several million US dollars,” he said.

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Stocks close at 6-1/2 month high

KARACHI: A rally in Pakistani banking shares helped lift the bourse to end on a six-and-a-half month high on Tuesday as foreign investors snapped up local stocks on the back of expected strong corporate results, dealers said.

The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-share index gained more than one per cent for a second straight day, closing up 1.22 per cent or 147.70 points, at 12,284.62 points, its highest close since July 26, 2011.

Volume fell to 162.11 million shares, compared with 196.3 million traded on Monday.

“The bullish trend continued on renewed foreign investment led by banking stocks in the earnings announcement session at KSE,” said Ahsan Mehanti, director at Arif Habib Corp Ltd.

Foreign investors bought shares worth a net $3.47 million on Monday. Data for Tuesday will be released later in the day.

Winners on the KSE included Bank Alfalah, which closed 2 per cent higher at 12.75 rupees, and National Bank of Pakistan, which rose 2.85 per cent to 46.58 rupees.

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Islamabad committed to expand economic relations with Tehran

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is committed to develop relations with Iran in various fields and in particular in field of economy.

This was stated by Advisor to the Prime Minister on finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in an interview with Islamic Republic NewsAgency here Monday.

The official said that there is enormous potential to enhance trade ties between Iran and Pakistan.

Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said that Iran and Pakistan are united by the bond of history, faith and culture. He said that officials of Iran and Pakistan had spent a productive day to bring the bilateral ties closer.

The advisor urged the businessmen of the two countries to work together to enhance cooperation in trade sector.

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Urea prices fall

ISLAMABAD: Urea prices have decreased by Rs400 per 50-kg bag due to timely import and distribution of the product, an official of ministry of industries told APP on Monday.

He said the prices eased to Rs1,800 from Rs2,200 in the local market. The prices are likely to ease further after arrival of 500,000 tons of urea in coming days, he added.

He informed that as many as 700,000 tons of urea fertiliser had already been offloaded and distributed across the country to meet requirements of farmers in Rabi season.

Timely import and check on hoarding and black marketing will help maintain sufficient quantity of the fertilisers for Kharif sowing, he remarked.

He said that some local urea manufacturing units were not operating at their optimum level due to gas load management programme which resulted in demand-supply gap and price hike of the commodity in the local market. The imported urea was costing the country about Rs2,600 per 50 kg bag and the government was providing Rs1,300 subsidy per bag to provide relief to the growers to increase crop output, he added.—APP

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Government approves sugar exports for first time since 2009

ISLAMABAD/DUBAI: Pakistan has approved the export of sugar for the first time in nearly three years, spurred by an expected surplus of more than 1 million tonnes, but the move is unlikely to affect the global market, which has priced in rising output in other countries.

Pakistan was forced to import about 1.2 million tonnes of sugar in 2010 after production fell to 3.1 million tonnes from the 2009/10 crop year, when many farmers switched to more profitable crops.

“The government has approved the export of 100,000 tonnes of sugar, but the modalities of export have not been worked out yet,” Khizer Hayat, a spokesman of the state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan, told Reuters, referring to white sugar.

“We are waiting to see if it will be done through private channels or by government corporations.”

Last year, Pakistani millers sought permission from the government to export up to 500,000 tonnes of refined sugar because of expectations of a bumper crop, which could exceed 5 million tonnes.

“We expect the sugar surplus to be 1.5 million tonnes, given the current domestic consumption,” a Ministry of Commerce official, who wished to remained anonymous, told Reuters.

Trade sources, speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the Kingsman sugar conference in Dubai, said Pakistan may decide to allow a further 300,000 to 500,000 tonnes of exports later, while most of the 100,000 tonnes of whites would be shipped to Afghanistan.

“It has come as a surprise that Pakistan has so much sugar,” Jonathan Kingsman, Managing Director of consultancy Kingsman SA, told Reuters.

“They (Pakistanis) will be willing to chase sugar prices lower to be able to place that sugar into the export market. If their production is as good as it seems to be, they could export 500,000 tonnes.”

Trade sources at the Kingsman conference estimated that Pakistan’s 2011/12 sugar production was between 4.5 million and 5.1 million tonnes, while annual domestic sugar consumption was seen at 4.2 million tonnes.

But analysts said global sugar prices were expected to be steady at current levels as the market factored in more supply from India, Brazil and Thailand.

India, the world’s number 2 sugar producer after Brazil, has a sugar surplus of 3 million to 4 million tonnes available for export in 2011/12.

India, which had allowed 1.5 million tonnes of exports under a scheme called Open General Licence (OGL) in the 2010/11 crop year ending September, recently issued a formal order for unrestricted exports of 1 million tonnes.

“I think short-term, basically I am looking at sugar to be trading in a range. I mean, for the short term, prices could be pressured because of the (global) surplus, but longer-term, I think, prices should be quite stable,” said Lynette Tan, an analyst with Phillip Futures in Singapore.

“Sugar is a very important commodity. You can see some of the governments probably even going into stockpiling programmes.”

March raw sugar futures on ICE rose 0.46 cent to end at 23.94 cents per lb on Friday after Labor Department data showed the US economy created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January, far outstripping analysts’ expectations.

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Stocks rise as U.S. jobs gain outweighs fears over Greece

Asian shares rose on Monday as surprisingly robust U.S. jobs data bolstered investor risk appetite, overshadowing worries about a lack of progress in Greek debt restructuring talks that are vital to containing the euro zone debt crisis.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6 percent to its highest in more than five months, after the index recorded a fifth successive weekly gain last week.

Japan’s Nikkei average opened up 1.2 percent.

Major stock indexes closed on Friday at multi-month highs, as sentiment was bolstered by U.S. job creation which far exceeded expectations last month and a surprise acceleration in the U.S. services sector to its highest in nearly a year.

In the euro zone, the private sector economy expanded in January for the first time since August, raising hopes the region could avoid a recession.

But Greece remained a drag as a number of major conditions demanded by the “Troika”, representing Greece’s European Union, European Central Bank and IMF lenders, were still outstanding.

Athens must tell the EU by Monday whether they accept the stern terms of a new bailout deal. Without the deal, Athens would head for a disorderly default.

“It’s a mixed bag really. Until Greece is resolved, it’s hard to get too unambiguously bullish on the back of better U.S. news and liquidity from Europe,” said Andrew Pease, Sydney-based chief investment strategist at Russell Investments Asia Pacific.

“It’s hard to see any solution to Greece that doesn’t involve some form of default,” he said, adding that while the uncertainty over the Greek issue remains a source of volatility, an event risk would be “a known unknown” and not a surprise.

The euro was down 0.2 percent at $1.3127.

Latest figures dated Jan. 31 showed investors reduced their short positions in the euro last week, after five weeks of selling, but the market is still significantly short of the single currency.

TECHNICALS EYED

EPFR Global data underscored investor appetite for higher returns, with flows into Emerging Market Equity Funds hitting a 43-week high in the week ended Feb. 1. EPFR Global-tracked Bond Funds saw inflows of a net $7.47 billion during the same period for the biggest weekly total since it started tracking them about 10 years ago.

“A strong U.S. employment report fueled the risk rally further, and some investors now wonder whether it is overextended. We think it is advanced, which means selectivity is warranted, but not over,” Barclays Capital said in a note.

“We see value in EM assets, including currencies. EM carry trades are supported by global central banks, growth differentials, the fading risk of a hard landing in China, clean balance sheets and positioning,” it said.

After the rally late last week, many markets were nearing key resistance, which could signal a pullback.

The CBOE Volatility index VIX, which measures expected volatility in the S&P 500 over the next 30 days, closed at a seven-month low of 17.10 on Friday, reflecting improved market sentiment and receding fears of sharp market falls.

A move to the support zone around 14-15 suggested increased volatility in coming sessions.

Spot gold inched up 0.3 percent to $1,730 an ounce after falling 1 percent on Friday when the jobs data dashed hopes for more stimulus from the Federal Reserve, which had been priced into bullion’s recent rally.

Asian credit markets firmed, with spreads on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment grade index tightening sharply by about 10 basis points early on Monday.

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LPG becomes most expensive fuel in country

ISLAMABAD: As the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is increased by Rs15 per kilogram to reach a new high ever, the industry players have blamed the government for imposing more than Rs11 per kg as petroleum levy on LPG.

The new highest-ever price of Rs109,702 per ton for the locally produced LPG has been notified by the producers including the oil refineries, whereas the LPG distributors have announced to observe strike on February 15 against the increase.

The notification issued by the state-owned LPG producers said the new LPG rates for February will be Rs83,000 per ton and the petroleum levy of Rs11,486 per ton will be added to this amount, whereas the other additions are excise duty of Rs85 per ton and 16 per cent GST.

“The price increase is from Rs93,856 in January to Rs109, 702 per ton for February”, said Bilal Jabbar, spokesman for the LPG Association of Pakistan. “Government is the single largest producer of the LPG in the country and is therefore the direct beneficiary of the increase in prices”, he said.

The LPG prices have also been impacted due to the imposition of petroleum levy as a result of which local prices have far exceeded its international price.

“Pakistan is the only country in the world where a tax has been imposed on local production to facilitate imports”, Jabbar said, adding “The whole exercise has been done to encourage favorites to manipulate imports”.

He said the government policies were causing serious financial loss to the consumers and the LPG industry will also bear serious implications.

On the other hand, the main body of LPG distributors have criticised the government policies which have resulted in LPG prices reaching a new high.

“The local LPG producers have shifted the burden of petroleum levy to 60 million consumers, giving an increase of Rs15,850 per ton to reach a record level of Rs109,700 per ton”, Chairman of FPCCI Standing Committee on LPG Abdul Hadi Khan said. “It was announced by the government that petroleum levy of Rs11,400 per ton was meant for producers and not consumers but now they have transferred it to the consumers”.

He said this has enhanced the price of the 11.8 kg domestic cylinder by Rs188 and the price of the 45.4 kg commercial cylinder has been jacked up by Rs726.

Whereas, chairman of his own faction of the LPG association, Irfan Khokhar has announced a strike on February 15 against passing of the petroleum levy to the consumers which has resulted record high of LPG in country.

“The cost of local LPG is between Rs13,000 and Rs14,000 per ton while it is being sold at Rs109,700 per ton”, Khokhar said adding that there has been a Rs350 billion scam in the LPG affairs during past five years. He urged the government to devise a price control mechanism to bring down the LPG price in the country.

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Indian consortium may bid for Afghan mining blocks: report

MUMBAI: State-run Steel Authority of India Ltd and government-controlled Hindustan Copper Ltd are in talks with India’s Aditya Birla Group and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd to form a consortium to bid for gold and copper deposits in Afghanistan, the Mint newspaper reported.

Afghanistan has invited expressions of interest by March 9 for gold and copper deposits in four provinces.

The consortium partners will be finalised soon, the paper quoted Hindustan Copper Chairman Shakeel Ahmed as saying.

Jindal Steel and Power is also interested in investing in other projects in Afghanistan, Chief Executive V. R. Sharma told the newspaper.

SAIL and Jindal Steel and Power were part of a consortium that won three iron ore blocks in Afghanistan’s Hajigak province in November.

India and China, two of the world’s fastest growing major economies, are vying with each other for access to Afghanistan’s oil and mineral reserves.

The companies could not be reached immediately for comment.

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Iran pipeline to supply gas by end of 2014

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources was informed on Tuesday that the supply of natural gas through the Iran-Pakistan (IP) pipeline would start by December 2014.

Petroleum and Natural Resources Secretary Ejaz Chaudhry said the route survey of the IP pipeline project had been completed and the process of land acquisition was under way.

The NA panel’s meeting, chaired by Sardar Talib Hassain Nakai, expressed dismay over the delay in the international pipeline projects.

The committee was informed that the tender of the project would be issued soon after completing legal formalities.

The secretary said as a long-term step to overcome the gas shortage, talks were underway to conclude an agreement for getting gas from Turkmenistan under the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India pipeline (TAPI) and supply of gas would start by 2016.

The committee was informed about the gas loadshedding, particularly in Punjab and Islamabad, and current gas production in the country that is over four billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) whereas the demand is over six BCFD.

“Gas demand during winters multiplies because of increase in consumption in the domestic sector,” the secretary said.

The contributory factors for widening gap between resources and insufficient addition of gas from existing and new sources and the shortfall for the current year is ranging from 668 to 1,061 MMCFD.

“The present gap is going to increase to around 303 BCFD by 2015, and the situation remains the same the gap will increase to 5.24 BCFD by 2020,” the committee was told.

The committee expressed concern over the energy crisis and directed the ministry to come with solid proposals in the next meeting so that it could contribute to save the country from the situation not only for the short-term basis but also long-term.

The committee directed the SNGPL and SSGCL to complete the gas developmental projects of parliamentarians on time.

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Gvot decides 10 pc surcharge on CNG

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to impose 10 percent surcharge on CNG from February, Secretary Petroleum Aijaz Chaudhary revealed during a briefing to National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources.

The Secretary Petroleum said that the decision would help to balance prices of CNG and petrol, added that, summary in regard with the issues has also been finalized.

He held OGRA responsible of distributing gas connections at the time of gas shortage despite the ministry expressed concerns over the distribution.

The committee, which met under the chair of MNA Talib Nakai, asked why were gas connections distributed during gas shortage?

The secretary defended Petroleum Minister Dr Asim for revealing price hike, saying the price formula was already on OGRA’s website.

He warned that if the situation remained unchanged, the gas crisis would also hit the country next year.

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WeBOC to help improve Sindh`s tax collection

KARACHI: The Sindh government expects to generate higher revenue during the current fiscal year upon linking collection of infrastructure cess at customs stage with newly rolled out auto-clearance system, Web-Based One Customs (WeBOC), at all the container terminals of the ports.

The infrastructure cess constitutes up to 60 per cent of total revenue collected by the province, therefore, auto system is going to bring an improvement by 10 to 15 per cent in collection, stated director-general Excise & Taxation, Sindh Mohammad Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui here on Monday.

Talking to FTNews in his office, he said the auto collection of the cess would check defaults and other malpractices. Therefore, the department expects improvement in its collection.

He said infrastructure cess is being collected at 0.8 to 0.85 per cent of the value of import consignments and its chargeability depends upon weigh and distance the goods will move through the province.

He disclosed that the system was first rolled out in the middle of last year at Port Qasim for auto-clearance of import/export consignments and subsequently it was launched at all the three container terminals Qasim International Container Terminal (QICT), Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT) and Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT).

As a result of this, DG Excise and Taxation Sindh said that for the last one month the entire collection of infrastructure cess at customs stage had been computerised.

This would mean that without payment of infrastructure cess at the customs stage, the Goods Declaration (DG) document will not allow clearance of consignments from port area and this would ensure full collection of the cess.

Responding to a question, he said six taxes are collected by his department, including motor vehicle tax, excise duty, professional tax, cotton fee and hotel tax and the provincial budget 2011-12 had set revenue collection target at Rs22.49 billion compared to Rs21 billion recovered last fiscal year.

However, under the 18th amendment, he said collection of property tax and entertainment duty had been devolved to provincial governments which were being collected by local governments.

Mohammad Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui further said that on average annual revenue collection of property tax and entertainment duty comes to Rs2.5 billion.

He said that during the current fiscal year, there would be a big shortfall in collection of cotton fee because of extensive damage caused by heavy rains and floods to standing cotton crop in the province last year.

But he was still hopeful that revenue collection target of Rs22.49 billion set for current fiscal would be surpassed.

Similarly, he said that excise duty collection during first six months (July-Dec) of current fiscal was short at Rs1.035 billion over the corresponding period of last fiscal when collection stood at Rs1.278 billion.

However, Mr Siddiqui said that during next six months of current fiscal year, efforts would be made to recover the shortfall in excise duty collection. He explained that closure of Murree Brewery for last five months caused the shortfall because the department was unable to collect excise duty on sale of its products in the province.

Nevertheless, he said revenue collection on account of all other taxes and levies during first six months of current fiscal has improved.

Giving details, the director-general Excise and Taxation said that collection of motor vehicle tax increased to Rs1.379 billion from Rs1.197 billion recorded in the corresponding period last year.

He further said that collection of professional tax increased to Rs148 million from Rs141 million collected in the same period last year, hotel tax stood at Rs71 million as against Rs62 million last fiscal, property tax collected Rs929 million from Rs897 million and entertainment duty rose to Rs13 million from Rs11 million last year.

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Fertiliser, seed of poor quality being sold openly

HYDERABAD: Growers of Matiari have expressed the fear that production of oilseed, gram, cotton and other crops will drop by 50 per cent because of sale of substandard seed and fertiliser and spurious pesticides in the town.

During meetings with officials of the Research and Development for Human Resources which has launched “Grow more crops” campaign in Matiari in collaboration with Oxfam, they said that small growers would suffer losses of tens of millions of rupees this year.

They said dealers of fake fertilisers, seeds and pesticides were minting money in the district. They spend thousands of rupees on each acre on farm inputs but they do not get back even the cost of production.

They said their crops and houses were destroyed by rains but the government did not provide them any relief.

Rafique Khoso, Khan Khaskheli, Khair Mohammad Khaskheli and Faqiro Khaskheli said that labels on fertiliser bags were genuine but the contents were spurious, which had affected fertility of land.

Mohammad Khan Khoso and Mohammad Qasim Memon said a mix of genuine and fake fertilisers and substandard seed were being sold to growers. They had complained to dealers as well as officials but received no response.

They demanded that godowns of such dealers be sealed and agriculture experts be sent to Matiari to investigate the matter.

Representatives of NGOs met a large number of growers and women farm workers in 20 villages of the union councils of Matiari, Shah Alam Shah and Sekhat.

EDUCATION: The Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority and City Guild International have singed an agreement.

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Iran to enforce single exchange rate

TEHRAN: The central bank of Iran is to enforce a single exchange rate after a dramatic slide in the value of the Iranian rial on the open market, state television reported on Thursday.

“From Saturday, there will be a single fixed rate for the dollar which will be 12,260 rials,” central bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani announced on television.

“This rate is valid for all transactions and authorised imports… as well as for students abroad or those travelling,” he said. Iran previously had two official exchange rates: one of 11,300 rials to the dollar at the bank for state operations and official imports, and a variable rate for businesses and individuals to purchase from foreign exchange offices.

A sharp decline in foreign reserves due to Western banking sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear programme forced the central bank in November to halt its policy of massive injections of dollars into the open market to support the rial.

The weakening of the Iranian currency, which slumped in past weeks from 13,500 to the dollar to more than 18,000, prompted the government in mid-Nov to set a fixed rate of 14,000, while retaining the official rate of 11,300 rials.—AFP

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Investment council for KP, Fata planned

ISLAMABAD: The federal government was establishing an investment promotion council for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata for the growth of business and local economy.

Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions Shaukatullah Khan chaired a meeting here on Thursday on the establishment of the council and stated that foreign and local investment in Fata was need of the hour as floods and terrorism had ruined economy of the region.

He stated that the government was determined to concentrate on its core functions including security, regulation, provision of social and municipal services and creation of an enabling environment for investment.

He emphasised the need for encouraging the use of cluster-based approaches for efficient economic development in marble, fossil fuel, minerals, agro-based industry and manufacturing industries since Fata had been identified as areas with rich natural resources. There was need to establish training and incubation centres for entrepreneurial and skill development projects in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, he said.

The minister asked all the stakeholders to work closely with the state and provincial agencies, while banks and financial institutions should extend facilities of access to credit for business and economic growth of Fata and KP.

Chairman of Regional Institute of Policy Research and Training (Riport) Khalid Aziz informed the meeting about the setting up of the council.

Safron Secretary Habibullah Khan, representatives of USAID, Fata parliamentarians and other officials attended the meeting.

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