Two Mega Grid Stations Worth Rs24b Inaugurated

electric

The Federal Minister for Energy (Power Division), Khurram Dastgir Khan on Saturday lay the foundation stone of two mega grid stations worth Rs 24 billion in Lahore and Sheikhupura. “The government is focusing on the production of cheap electricity from indigenous resources like Thar coal, wind, solar and hydel,” he said, announcing that, “2000 MW of cheap power from Thar coal alone will be added to the national grid before the end of June 2023.” The federal minister made these remarks while addressing the ground-breaking ceremonies of the 500 kV…

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End of FY23: JP Morgan has penciled in another 400bps rate-hike, but experts disagree

Market experts disagreed with JP Morgan, a leading global financial institution that penciled in an interest rate hike of 400 basis points by the end of fiscal year 2023 (June 30), arguing that pressure on Pakistan’s economy stemming from inflation and external factors would subside in coming months. JPMorgan, in its ‘Asia Pacific Economic Research’ on December 5, 2022, had said it was penciling “in another 400bps of hikes, bringing the policy rate to 20% by end-FY23”. However, experts disagreed with the projections. “I believe this will not be the…

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Economic Emergency

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is out of dollars. We must bring back the IMF. Pakistan’s access to global capital markets has shut down (read: no one is ready to lend us more dollars). We must bring back the IMF. Our government has no control over its stream of expenditures. We must bring back the IMF. Our power sector keeps on losing Rs500 billion a year, every year. The leakages in our gas sector hover around $4 billion a year, every year. Our Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs), already indebted…

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Oil Tankers Association Protests Against Member’s Kidnapping

The oil tankers association staged a protest on Saturday near Bilawal House — the residence of ruling party PPP’s top leadership — in Karachi’s Clifton area against the alleged kidnapping of their colleague, officials said. According to SSP South Syed Asad Raza, Imran Afridi had recently traveled from Peshawar to Karachi. “He was honey-trapped into purchasing an excavator for which he traveled to Ghotki district’s Ranwati Katchi area and was kidnapped.” the officer said. Police suspect the involvement of the infamous “Shar gang” in the incident. The gang has been…

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Big Oil Is Preparing To Spend A Lot More In 2023

A couple of months ago, U.S. President Joe Biden urged energy companies to stop ‘war profiteering’ and even threatened to slap them with windfall tax if they failed to invest their profits in lowering costs for Americans and increasing production. The calls came at a time when Big Oil has been posting record profits amid high commodity and energy prices.  The majority of energy companies have avoided spending big to expand production in the aftermath of the 2020 oil crisis, prioritizing returning more cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and…

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