Category: Highlights

Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that it was unjustified for the International Monetary Fund to force Pakistan to increase its electricity tariff and that they would review the programme.    He criticized the IMF for setting conditions that in his opinion have been affecting Pakistan’s economy negatively. On the IMF instructions, Pakistan promised to increase taxes by a massive Rs1.272 trillion and jack up electricity rates by almost Rs4.97 per unit in the remaining three months of this current fiscal year. The IMF said it was necessary to…

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The government has prioritised power projects, which also include strategic projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to execute the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP). Sources told The Express Tribune that the government will execute those power generation projects under the government-to-government arrangement that are listed under federal government’s international (bilateral or multilateral) commitments, if project financing agreements have been signed. In the second category are those committed projects that have obtained Letter of Support (LOS) as of December 2020 for private sector projects. In the third category federal…

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Islamabad on Friday expressed its disappointment over a resolution adopted on Pakistan’s blasphemy laws by the European Parliament, which also called for a review of GSP (Generalised Scheme of Preferences) plus status of the country. The resolution, adopted on Thursday, demanded of Pakistan to allow space for religious freedom and urged the EU authorities to review the country’s GSP+ status amid “alarming” number of blasphemy cases. It said that there has been an alarming increase in accusations of blasphemy online and offline in Pakistan over the past year. “Many of these accusations…

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President Joe Biden’s plan to wean U.S. drivers off fossil fuels requires massive investment in public charging stations to power the electric-car revolution. So far, none of the companies that deploy the equipment has figured out how to make a profit. The dilemma boils down to demand, and there’s a certain chicken-and-egg quality to it. Most electric-vehicle drivers charge their cars at home, so many public charging stations get little use. But lots of people still driving gasoline-powered cars won’t consider going electric until they see charging stations widely deployed,…

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Malaysian national oil company (NOC) Petronas is adding three new liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers to its global fleet. The ships will primarily be used to ship LNG from Canada. Petronas said yesterday that it has signed a Time Charter Party (TCP) for three newbuild 174,000 cubic metres LNG vessels with shipowner, Hyundai LNG Shipping (HLS). The deal with HLS was awarded via an international tender exercise to support Petronas’ growing global LNG business portfolio. As part of the agreement, HLS had signed shipbuilding contracts with Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI)…

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