Pakistan Daily Economy Update - 23 February

Transcription

1. February 23 , 2022 KCCI - eBulletin Houston trade delegation to visit Karachi Houston-Karachi Sister City Association (HKSCA) President Saeed Sheikh, while speaking at a meeting at KCCI, has said that the mayor of Houston (Texas, USA) has expressed the desire to bring a trade delegation to Karachi in Sep’22, which will hold meetings with govt. officials and local trade bodies. He said that the association was looking forward to facilitating the signing of a memorandum of understanding or memorandum of cooperation between the Houston Port and Karachi Port Trust so that business communities of the two cities could be provided with numerous facilities including warehouses at ports. He emphasized the need to explore new avenues of trade and investment cooperation, encourage business-to-business and people-to-people interactions along with organizing trade promotion activities including the visits of delegations and exhibitions in both cities. Advising Karachi’s business community to hold follow-up meetings with the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP), he mentioned that GHP is the strongest trade body in the US, as corporate offices of more than 500 firms are based in Houston. Responding to the intention of KCCI President Muhammad Idrees to send a delegation to Houston this year, Sheikh assured him that the delegation would be fully facilitated. Tribune. Ban on indoor weddings, dining lifted as Sindh eases Covid curbs After one month, the Sindh govt. has lifted the ban on all types of indoor events in Karachi allowing vaccinated people to attend weddings or dining in restaurants after Covid-19 cases showed a decreasing trend across the province. As per the order, the indoor gatherings, including weddings and related functions, were allowed with a limit of 500 fully vaccinated individuals. However, there will be no limit for outdoor gatherings/ceremonies. Similarly, indoor gyms, sports, cinemas, amusement parks and shrines were allowed to open for fully vaccinated individuals only. There will be no restriction on business timings with 100% attendance. Dawn. Murad says work on Red Line to begin next month Sindh CM Syed Murad Ali Shah has formally approved the proposal for launching the PKR 14Bn construction works on the first phase of Red Line bus rapid transit project starting from Malir Halt Depot to Mosamiyat. Karachi BRT Red Line (KBRT) project is being implemented with the assistance of ADB and three other co-financers with a total cost of PKR 78.38Bn. Work on the first lot would be started in the second week of Mar’22. BRT Red Line is a 25-km corridor which would have ridership of over 300,000 passengers per day. Dawn. SBP to provide unlimited loans for agri warehousing projects Speaking at the Launch and Roadshow of Electronic Warehouse Receipt Financing (EWRF) for Maize Crop, SBP governor said that commercial banks to provide loans for warehouse infrastructure development projects at 6% markup. He said SBP in FY21 had fixed PKR 1.5Tn agri loan target for all banks. However, the banks disbursed PKR 1.365Tn. This year’s target is PKR 1.7Tn. Dawn. Tech startup fund established PM Imran Khan has announced establishment of Pakistan Technology Startup Fund to provide PKR 1Bn seed funding to around 50 Startups annually. The govt. is announcing tax holiday and 100% forex retention for IT/ITeS companies and freelancers registered with the Pakistan Software Export Bureau (PSEB) to incentivize investment in the IT sector for economic turnaround. BR. Sukuk, IMF package to help shore up economy: Moody’s Moody’s Investors Services (Moody’s) has said that the issuance of Sukuk by Pakistan, together with the $ 1Bn disbursement from IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF), will help shore up the economy’s reserves amid a sharp widening of the current account deficit. Moody’s in its latest report stated that Pakistan (B3 stable) returned to the Sukuk market with a seven-year issuance in Jan’22, its first Sukuk since 2017. The report stated that global long-term sovereign Sukuk issuance is set to drop to $ 73Bn in 2022 and $ 75Bn in 2023, from $ 88Bn in 2021, including issuance by multilateral development banks. BR. Refunds under FASTER system: Exporters challenge notices Exporters have challenged notices of FBR’s field formations for submission of annex-F (carry forward summary) of the sales tax return for obtaining refunds under the FASTER system. A tax expert based in Karachi has said that sales tax circular number 4 of 2019 of the FBR has not stopped processing of sales tax refund payments to the exporters under the FASTER system merely on the basis that Annexure-F (carry forward summary) and Annexure-H (stock statement) of the sales tax return form do not match. BR. ITFC approves $ 1.2Bn for Pakistan The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), a member of the Islamic Development Bank, has approved a $ 1.2Bn financing under the annual plan to provide Pakistan integrated trade solutions to support the energy and agriculture sectors. The annual plan agreement for 2022 includes financing for the import of essential commodities such as crude oil, refined petroleum products, LNG, food \ and agricultural products in addition to implementing trade-related technical assistance intervention to ensure trade development impact. Dawn. Judiciary receives first briefing on pending tax cases FBR Chairman Ashfaq Ahmed briefed representatives of the judiciary and federal govt. on pending cases — in particular 13 so-called ‘mega cases’ — that had hampered the recovery of around PKR 233Bn in taxes. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that FBR could not recover PKR 3,000Bn due to litigation and stay orders issued by the courts countrywide. Dawn. KE seeks PKR 3.4 per unit tariff hike for January In a twist of events, K-Electric has sought about PKR 3.40 per unit increase in its monthly Fuel Price Adjustment (FPA) for electricity it sold to consumers in Jan’22 to generate PKR 3.73Bn in additional revenue in Apr’22. KE’s request for higher FPA came days after Nepra notified a negative FPA of PKR 2.5953/kWh for Dec’21 with an impact of PKR 3.038Bn to be passed on to consumers in Mar’22. The regulator would hold a public hearing on the subject on 1st Mar’22. Dawn. Seed industry rejects 17% sales tax The seed industry of Pakistan has termed imposition of 17% sales tax on seeds last nail in the coffin and rejected it while citing that it would affect the access to quality seeds for farmers, industry and end users by inflating its cost. Tribune. Pak- Uzbekistan bilateral PTA to be finalized in March Adviser to PM on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood has said that PTA to increase bilateral trade between Pakistan and Uzbekistan is expected to be finalized in Mar’22. Razak Dawood said the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev will pay a visit to Pakistan on 2nd-3rd Mar’22. Daily Times. Provinces to be asked to share subsidy burden The Finance Ministry has reportedly decided to ask provinces to share financial burden of all subsidies on the lines of agriculture tubewells and domestically produced fertilizers. The proposal was floated at a recent meeting of ECC. BR. Bids received for only one of two March LNG tenders Pakistan LNG has received bids for only one of the two Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargoes it had sought through prompt tenders for delivery in Mar’22 after long-term sellers were unable to deliver. Pakistan LNG did not receive any offers to import a cargo for 2nd–3rd Mar’22 delivery. Dawn. List of Indicators Date / Period Unit Value Change Daily USD-Interbank USD-Open MKT 22-Feb 22-Feb PKR PKR 176.23 176.95 0.27% -0.06% KSE-100 index FIPI 22-Feb 22-Feb Pts. $ Mn 45,012 -0.73 -0.77% NM** Crude Oil 22-Feb $/bbl 92.25 -0.43% Gold 22-Feb $/oz 1,897.3 -0.77% Gold (10g) Local 22-Feb PKR 107,810 0.00% Silver 22-Feb $/oz 24.10 0.25% Cotton(KHI)-40 kg 22-Feb PKR 21,541 0.00% Kibor-6M 22-Feb % 10.83 0.00% Forex Reserves 11-Feb $ Bn 23.49 WoW -0.97% Remittances Jul-Jan 22 $ Bn 17.95 8.95% Exports* Jul-Jan 22 $ Bn 17.67 23.96% Imports* Jul-Jan 22 $ Bn 46.47 58.84% Trade Balance* Jul-Jan 22 $ Bn -28.80 -91.97% Current Account Foreign Direct Inv. Jul-Dec 21 Jul-Jan 22 $ Bn $ Bn -9.09 1.17 -829.11% 11.32% YoY Jul-Dec 21 LSM Growth* % 3.40 % 10.26 Jul-Jan 22 Avg. CPI Discount Rate % 9.75 Jan-22 Sources: KCCI Research, PMEX , NCCPL, KSE, SBP, PBS* ** Not Meaningful, WoW= week on week; YoY=Year on Year Major Currencies 255 245 235 225 215 205 195 185 175 165 155 145 Feb-21 GBP, 22-Feb-22, 239.8 EUR, 22-Feb-22, 199.5 USD, 22-Feb-22, 177.0 USD May-21 GBP Aug-21 EUR Nov-21 Feb-22 Source: KCCI Research Quote of the Day "Failure doesn't mean you are a failure it just means you haven't succeeded yet." Robert H. Schuller Top 10 Sources of FDI Inflows in Pakistan in 7M-FY22 ($ Mn) China 410.52 Netherlands 229.22 United States 170.44 Hongkong 128.15 U.A.E 95.61 Singapore 81.17 United Kingdom 79.96 Switzerland 76.12 Malaysia 60.87 Germany 54.27 0 100 200 300 400 500 Source: KCCI Research; SBP Note Smeda has invited applications for Growth Stage Start-up grants to provide financial support to entrepreneurs to meet capital or operating needs. The maximum grant size is of PKR 500,000 or 80% Damage to undersea cable slows down internet speed The internet services across the country suffered disruption after one of the two undersea cables operated by a private telecommunication of the total cost of goods / services. Please visit company was damaged near Karachi. Dawn. http://nbdp.org.pk/nbdp_grants.php