Month: February 2021

ISLAMABAD: In a positive development, 41 out of 47 IPPs that signed MoUs with the government in August 2020 have so far initialed master agreements, paving the way for their discounted tariff of Rs 836 billion in next 10-12 years. Six IPPs are still away in the wake of a dispute over resolution of excess profits of Rs53 billion from initialing the master agreements legally binding contracts. Under the MoUs, the government is bound to finalize the timeframe before February 12 with IPPs for clearance of their dues amounting to…

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Amazingly, the pace of inflation slowed down to 5.7% in January, which was the lowest rate in over two years, due to smooth supplies of perishable food items and abnormally high inflation rate in the same month a year ago. It was the consecutive fourth month that the inflation pace was on a downward trajectory. “Inflation continues to decline. January inflation (CPI) is down to 5.7%”, tweeted Asad Umar, the federal minister for planning and development on Sunday -a day before the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics was set to officially…

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Pakistan was ranked second in the list of countries with the worst air quality in 2019 by a Swiss air quality technology company. Lahore and Karachi often compete for the first position in the list of the world’s most polluted cities on the company’s website. These rankings are based on the Air Quality Index (AQI), which is based on the concentration of breathable particulate matter, PM2.5, and its values range from 0-500. The higher the AQI, the higher the air pollution, and the greater the health concern. This company uses…

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We grew up hearing about abundance of minerals in Pakistan and their potential to bring economic change to the country. However, so far we have not really been able to harness them to bring that change. While they remained mostly buried below the ground, the country kept on sinking in the quagmire of debt which stood at $276 billion as of June 2020. In addition to the heavy debt, the country is embroiled in many other social and economic issues. This makes it imperative to look for all options for…

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ISLAMABAD: For the fifth fortnight in a row, the government on Sunday increased the prices of all petroleum products by 2.5 per cent to 4.6pc for the next 15 days. According to an announcement by the Prime Minister Office, the ex-depot prices of high speed diesel (HSD) and petrol were increased by Rs2.88 and Rs2.70 per litre, respectively. The prices of kerosene and light diesel oil (LDO) were jacked up by Rs3.54 and Rs3per litre, respectively. As such, the ex-depot price of HSD rose to Rs116.07 per litre from Rs113.19,…

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