Year: 2020

Govt approves subsidy for farmers

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ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday approved a fertiliser subsidy of Rs5.4 billion for farmers, two days after a ruckus in the federal cabinet over increasing inflation and the lack of a coordinated response to tackle it. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet approved a subsidy of Rs1,000 per 50kg bag of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance. The Rs5.4 billion subsidy has been worked out on the basis of 30% outreach to the farmers and the federal government will bear…

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Pakistan to seek China loan rollover

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to seek rollover of a $3 billion Chinese trade finance facility that it has actually used to repay maturing debt and is not in a financial position to return the money when the facility expires after six months. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has fully tapped the $3 billion or 20 billion Chinese yuan in the additional trade finance facility available under the China-Pakistan currency swap arrangement, showed financial accounts of the SBP for fiscal year 2019-20. Sources said Pakistan largely utilised the Chinese trade…

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Remittance inflows to increase by 9pc, says WB

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The ‘Migration and Develop­ment Brief’ released on Friday says that the negative impact of the Covid-19-induced global economic slowdown has been somewhat countered by the diversion of remittances from informal to formal channels due to the difficulty of carrying money by hand under travel restrictions as well as the incentives to transfer remittances. Citing example, the report titled ‘Phase-II Covid-19 Crisis through a Migration Lens’ says Pakistan has introduced a tax incentive in July 2020, whereby withholding tax was exempted from cash withdrawals or the issuance of banking instruments or…

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Foreign investors dump $430.4mln of debt assets in four months

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Foreign investors have divested $430.4 million from debt assets in Pakistan and invested $150 million in the government papers during the first four months of the current fiscal year of 2020/21, it was learnt on Saturday. The country saw a huge equity and debt outflows of $279 million toward the end of October, according to the central bank’s data. Foreign investors sold $251 million worth of treasury bills and $41 million worth of equities after a four percent currency gain and apprehensive of potential margin calls in other major stock…

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Petrol price reduced by Rs1.57, diesel by Re0.84 per litre

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The government on Saturday reduced petrol price by Rs1.57/litre and diesel by Re0.84/litre, while kerosene and light diesel oil prices have been kept unchanged for the next fortnight. After the latest decision, the petrol price will come down from the earlier Rs103.97/liter to Rs102.40/ liter. Diesel price was also reduced from Rs104.06/litre to Rs103.22 per liter. Kerosene and LDO prices have been kept unchanged at Rs65.29 and Rs62.86/litre respectively. The government is charging 17 percent general sales tax (GST) on all petroleum products. The government is also collecting petroleum levy…

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