Pakistan Daily Economy Update - 30 January

Transcription

1. Jan 30 , 2021 KCCI - eBulletin Motiwala urges govt to prioritise relief, rescue activities Chairman BMG & Former President KCCI, Zubair Motiwala has urged that the govt. will have to prioritize relief and rescue activities throughout 2021 by sharing the burden of business community. He pointed out that thousands of businesses particularly small businesses and traders have shared their distress stories and fears of going bankrupt with KCCI therefore, it has become inevitable to declare 2021 as the year of ‘Relief & Rescue’ in the supreme national interest otherwise numerous businesses would completely fade away, which would further worsen the economic woes, destroy business activities, give rise to poverty and unemployment and may also trigger anarchy all over the country. He explained that shopkeepers and SMEs usually have two major unavoidable expenditures including the rental payment for premises and salaries payable to workers. These small traders, shopkeepers and SMEs, who lost all their savings in dealing with the extraordinary situation caused by Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, desperately need to be rescued in 2021 hence the govt. should urgently devise some kind of an effective mechanism to share half of the burden of the rent of business premises while 50% of salaries payable to workers must also be borne by the govt., to ensure survival of many shopkeepers and SMEs and avert massive job losses. BR. Moratorium on gas supply: clarification In light of a recent announcement by the federal govt. with regards to a moratorium on supply of gas to industrial units for selfgeneration of electricity, it is hereby clarified that two categories of industrial customers having contracts with SSGC for Power Generation (Export/ Non-Export) will not be disconnected unless the relevant Discos/K-Electric confirm in writing their technical ability to serve the sanctioned power load. These two categories include; firstly, those industrial units having electricity connections less than their requirement and secondly those industrial units having no electricity connection. All such captive power plants shall apply for load with enhancement/grid connectivity to relevant DISCO/K-Electric in compliance with the directions of the Federal Cabinet. BR. Alvi lashes out at FBR, orders to recover over PKR 14Mn in bogus tax refunds case President Arif Alvi has rejected FBR's representation against the order of Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) in a case of bogus tax refunds worth over PKR 14Mn made to a fake Registered Person. Alvi upheld FTO's decision against the irregularities committed by FBR field formations in registering, processing, sanctioning and issuing sales tax refunds to fake RPs during the period FY13. BR. Jan provisional tax collection stands at PKR 363Bn FBR has provisionally collected around PKR 363Bn during Jan’21 against the monthly target of PKR 340Bn, reflecting an increase of PKR 23Bn. It has provisionally collected PKR 2,569Bn during 7MFY21 against the target of PKR 2,550Bn, showing an increase of PKR 19Bn. BR. POL products’ prices likely to go up from Feb 1 Ogra has sent a summary of petroleum products’ prices in which it proposed an increase of PKR 13/litre for petrol, and PKR 11/litre for high-speed diesel. The regulator worked put the recommended prices base at 17% GST and PKR 30 petroleum levy. The final decision would be taken by the Ministry of Finance after consultation with PM Imran Khan. BR. Non-installation of VAS: Sugar mills to be penalized after 31st: FBR FBR has decided to impose heavy penalties on non-compliant sugar millers, if they fail to install the Video Analytic System (VAS) at factory premises by 31st Jan’21. According to the notice issued by the FBR, seven vendors have been authorized for VAS and the details of the vendors were shared with Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) to initiate the process. A large number of sugar mills are not willing to implement the system as they have either issued provisional quotations or not issued any quotation during the process of VAS. BR. ADB sells second Pak Rupee linked 'Karakoram’ bonds ADB has sold the second Pak Rupee linked 'Karakoram’ priced at $ 10Mn. The Karakoram bonds issued for five years brought in PKR 1.60Bn to Pakistan. Building on the strong first outing, SCB placed it with two European investors with proceeds invested into Pakistan govt. securities, said ADB. BR. World Bank assures Sindh of releasing stuck-up fund soon World Bank has assured Sindh govt. to soon release the outstanding funds to help in timely completion of development projects in the province. Currently 12 projects worth $ 1.6Bn are active in the province in addition to six projects with the same financing commitment \ in the pipeline. 5 projects are scheduled to close during FY21 which includes the Karachi neighborhood improvement program that is estimated to cost $ 86Mn. The News. Tech equipment for ‘Road to Makkah’ project: ECC refuses to grant tax/duty exemption ECC has refused to grant exemption from taxes and duties on technical equipment to be imported for installation on four airports under the ‘Road to Makkah’ project until FBR gives its consent. BR. Travel curbs on six countries extended till Feb 28 The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) has extended travel restrictions on category-C countries — South Africa, UK, Brazil, Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands — till 28th Feb’21, though travelers from these countries can still come to Pakistan if allowed by the National Command and Operation Centre. The PCAA also reduced the PCR test requirement for the countries categorized as B and C from 96 to 72 hours. Travel-related SOPs have been extended till 28th Feb’21. Dawn. NA body presents agri growth strategy for next seven years National Assembly Special Committee on Agricultural Products has presented an integrated structural reforms-oriented agricultural growth strategy for the next seven years. The chief components of the agricultural growth strategy include oilseed development, lowcost refinance line of credit and credit enhancement for digital production finance, digitization of demand-driven extension content, integrated seed system and agriculture climate change insurance pool among others. The News. Grid station at BQIP: PKR 300Mn grant approved by govt The Federal Govt. has approved PKR 300Mn technical supplementary grant to complete 132KV grid station at Bin Qasim Industrial Park. BR. SBP's Baqir says moderately accommodative monetary a ‘right approach’ The moderately accommodative monetary stance adopted by Pakistan is the ‘right approach’ in the present circumstances, said Governor SBP Reza Baqir. He stated that this time we wanted to convey in our Monetary Policy Committee meeting was not only that we left the rates unchanged, we have done that in the previous meetings as well but the new element in our statement was the forward guidance that we provided, which is that in the near term and in the absence of unforeseen developments, we see monetary policy settings remaining unchanged. BR. FBR refunds PKR 1Bn to Sindh FBR has refunded PKR 1Bn to the Sindh govt. account that was recovered as an outstanding amount from the provincial excise and taxation department. The News. Economic Indicators List of Indicators Date / Period Unit Value Change Daily USD-Interbank USD-Open MKT 29-Jan 29-Jan PKR PKR 160.10 160.30 -0.11% -0.06% KSE-100 index FIPI 29-Jan 29-Jan Pts. $ Mn 46,386 -3.51 0.48% NM** Crude (AP'19) 29-Jan $/bbl 52.20 -0.27% Gold (MA'19) 29-Jan $/oz 1,850.3 0.49% Gold (10g) Local 29-Jan PKR 95,770 0.00% Silver (MA'19) 29-Jan $/oz 26.91 3.83% Cotton(KHI)-40 kg 29-Jan PKR 11,574 0.00% Kibor-6M 29-Jan % 7.56 0.03% Forex Reserves 22-Jan $ Bn 20.11 WoW -0.07% Remittances Jul-Dec 20 $ Bn 14.20 24.89% Exports* Jul-Dec 20 $ Bn 12.10 4.98% Imports* Jul-Dec 20 $ Bn 24.52 5.72% Trade Balance* Jul-Dec 20 $ Bn -12.42 -6.44% Current Account Foreign Direct Inv. Jul-Dec 20 Jul-Dec 20 $ Bn $ Bn 1.13 0.95 155.66% -29.82% YoY Jul-Nov 20 LSM Growth* % 7.41 % 8.63 Jul-Dec 20 Avg. CPI Discount Rate % 7.00 Jul-20 Sources: KCCI Research, PMEX , NCCPL, KSE, SBP, PBS* ** Not Meaningful, WoW= week on week; YoY=Year on Year Major Currencies 235 GBP, 29-Jan-21, 219.9 225 215 205 195 EUR, 29-Jan-21, 194.5 185 175 165 155 145 USD Jan-20 GBP Apr-20 USD, 29-Jan-21, 160.4 Source: KCCI Research ; Oanda.com EUR Jul-20 Oct-20 Quote of the Day “It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.” Warren Buffet CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX 2020RANKINGS & SCORES (1st) New Zealand (11th) UK (21st) UAE (25th) USA (53rd) KSA (78th) China (86th) Turkey (86th) India (104th) Thailand (124th) Pakistan (146th) Bangladesh 88 77 71 67 52 42 40 40 36 31 26 0 20 40 60 80 100 *Score out of 100. Higher the score, better the ranking. Source: KCCI Research, Transparency IInternational Webinar on UAE’s Economy Business institutes and government departments are holding a webinar on UAE’s economy and its amended FDI law (100% foreign ownership). 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