Month: February 2021

From the first tracks laid in 1879 at Gyzylarbat, northwest of the capital of modern-day Turkmenistan, locomotive transport has always been central to Central Asia due to the region’s distance from the open sea. Although first set down amid the expansion of the Russian Empire, today, railways have a central role in the economic planning of the Central Asian states, especially in Kyrgyzstan and double-landlocked Uzbekistan. Afghanistan Expansion In Tashkent on February 2, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan agreed to a roadmap for the building of a 573-kilometer route from Mazar-e-Sharif…

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In China’s debt-trap diplomacy, Pakistan is struggling to repay loans for power projects under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and seeks to reschedule as much as USD 22 billion in outstanding credits. In recent years, Chinese loans have fueled a massive buildout of Pakistan’s power generation, financing that has turned a perennial electricity shortfall into a now-massive capacity surplus that the highly indebted nation can increasingly ill-afford, Asia Times reported. In those debt-rescheduling talks, Pakistani officials are also reportedly asking their Chinese counterparts to decelerate agreed plans…

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ISLAMABAD: The Natio­nal Electric Power Regula­tory Authority (Nepra) on Wednesday slightly reduced the rate of return on equity (ROE) from 15 to 14.5pc for three old nuclear power plants of 930MW. This would provide a saving of Rs2.05bn per annum or about 25 paisa per unit for remaining 25-37 year life of these projects, the re­­gulator said in a statement. The management of three nuclear power plants loca­ted at Chashma (C-2, C-3 and C-4) had filed the tariff petitions under Aug 27, 2020 decisions of the Cabinet Committee on Energy…

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Karachi (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 24th Feb, 2021) Chairman of National Business Group of FPCCI, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said circular debt is increasing despite a hefty hike of 15 percent in the power tariff. He said that remittances are increasing while Foreign Direct Investment is sliding at a rapid pace which should be noted.Mian Zahid Hussain said that according to a study the circular debt increase by Rs436 billion to hit…

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Net profit of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) declined 20.5pc YoY to Rs42.2 billion during the first half (July-Dec) of the current fiscal year (FY21) as compared to Rs53 billion earned in the corresponding period of the last year, according to financial results announced by OGDC on Wednesday. The company’s earning per share (EPS) reduced to Rs9.82 from Rs12.35. OGDC announced a cash dividend of Rs1.6 per share in addition to interim dividend already paid at Rs2 per share. The decline in OGDCL’s profitability can be attributed…

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