Month: February 2022

The talks on some issues remained inconclusive, but the legal teams of both sides will finalize the draft of the shareholding agreement later, top officials who remained part of the talks told The News. During the negotiations, Moscow was represented by Vladimir Shcherbatykh, Evgeniya Neimerovets, and Anisat Bairkhanova with more officials on video from Russia while Nadeem Bajwa, MD ISGS, Syed Ali Zikria, Joint Secretary in Petroleum Division, and Faisal, a CLM lawyer, Aurangzeb, an ISGS lawyer, and Amir Khan, CFO ISGS, represented Pakistan. It appears that both the countries…

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The government has decided to further increase electricity prices by Rs2.8 per unit to collect an additional Rs292 billion from consumers aimed at bringing the vicious circular debt down that remains high despite massively increasing the prices. A cabinet body on Thursday approved the revised Circular Debt Management Plan (July 2021-June 2023), which disclosed that from February to July this year, power tariff would go up by Rs2.8 per unit in two phases. The decision has been taken according to an understanding reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for…

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Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin informed the Senate on Friday that Pakistan will start using the Saudi oil facility on deferred payments from next month. Last week, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia agreed to operationalise the kingdom’s oil facility at the earliest for which an agreement worth $1.2 billion for the import of petroleum products was signed on November 29, 2021, between the two countries. As per the financing agreement, the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) will extend the financing facility up to $100 million per month for one year for the…

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The Fed­eral Board of Revenue has notified a lower rate of general sales tax on petroleum products to keep its prices competitive for consumers. A sales tax SRO 183(I) of 2022 released on Thursday said the lowest GST rates were notified to pass minimum increase to consumers. The standard GST rate is 17pc. “In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (b) of sub-section (2) of section 3 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, the federal government is pleased to direct that the following further amendment shall be made [with…

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