Day: November 5, 2021

Sugar prices have skyrocketed as wholesale rates touch Rs. 150 per kilogram and retail rates reach Rs. 160 per kilogram in most areas of the country, with the government unable to control the prices.

Prices have increased as the local sugar supply has declined. The government also identified sugar millers that raised their prices under the pretext of disruption in sugar supply due to TLP protests.

Two major groups are hoarding around 80,000 tons of sugar stock and are rigging the market with the help of sugar dealers, said an official from the Punjab government.

“The Punjab government is caught between a restraining order by the court (preventing lifting stocks of defaulting mills) and realities of the market. It cannot touch the mills’ stocks even if they are behaving like they are. So, these groups are now dictating the market and minting money,” explained the official.

To make things worse, sugar prices are soaring despite importing 300,000 tons of sugar, spending the limited dollar reserves in the country.

Government officials reported that imported sugar is being undersupplied, and provinces are only providing imported sugar in Sasta Bazars. Further, there is a perception that the imported sugar is of poor quality, allowing the local sugar millers to charge higher for their stock — that is more granular and crystal.

The National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) will discuss the sugar issue at its next meeting and possibly decide to halt sugar imports for the ongoing year to fulfill local demands, said high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Finance.

Source: Pro Pakistani

The foreign reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan saw an increase of $53 million and surged up to $17.199 billion at the end of last week. However, a decline was seen in Total Liquid Forex Reserves as they moved down to $23.925 billion from $23.933 billion, a decrease of $8 million.

Net reserves with SBP during October decreased drastically. On October 1, the net reserves of SBP were recorded at $19.169 billion whereas, by the end of the month, the net reserves dropped to $17.199 billion. The biggest fall came during the third week of the month as net reserves dropped from $19.138 billion on October 8 to $17.492 billion on October 15.

Consequently, a decline in Total Liquid Forex Reserves was seen during the month. At the beginning of the month, the total liquid forex reserves stood at $25.999 billion, and by the end of the month, the reserves were recorded at $23.925 billion.

Over the past few months, the foreign reserves have depicted an irregular trend. The foreign reserves held by SBP witnessed a massive increase and went from $17.846 billion in July 2021 to $20.074 billion in August 2021. However, by the end of September 2021, the foreign reserves held by the central bank witnessed a dip and settled at $19.253 billion.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Cement sales declined in the first four months of the ongoing fiscal year despite the increase in domestic sales as their exports dropped substantially.

The combined domestic and export sales figures stood at 18.029 million tonnes during July-October FY2022, which is a 6.68 percent drop as compared to the same period last year (19.331 million tonnes) according to data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA).

The data showed that domestic sales grew by 1.1 percent to 15.882 million tonnes during the first four months of the current fiscal year from 15.713 million tonnes in the same period last year. Overall, the slight increase in sales was affected by a massive drop in the export of cement.

The exports were 2.157 million tonnes during the period from July to October in the ongoing year against 3.617 million tonnes during the same period last year, posting a whopping 40.4 percent drop in the exports.

A monthly analysis shows that sales dropped by 9.01 percent in October in the ongoing year and the sales stood at 5.214 million tonnes as compared to 5.735 million tonnes during the same month in the last fiscal year.

The trend has been attributed to declines in the monthly domestic sales and monthly exports of cement.

The APCMA noted that the cement industry has had a reduction of 5.29 percent in domestic sales. The domestic sales in October 2021 and October 2020 were 4.603 million tonnes and 4.859 million tonnes respectively. Likewise, the exports dropped by 30.09 percent to 611,884 tonnes in October 2021 from 875,266 tonnes in the same month of the previous fiscal year.

Based on the geographical breakdown, the mills in the north sold 3.831 million tonnes of cement in the domestic markets in October 2021, down 8.01 percent from 4.164 million tonnes last October.

The mills in the south sent 771,755 tonnes of cement to local markets in October 2021, posting an increase of 11.01 percent over the 695,221 tonnes shipped in October 2020.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Virtual Remittance Gate (VRG) World has won its legal battle against Digital Bridge as the Sindh High Court (SHC) has allowed it to continue providing services to various clients for the Asaan Mobile Scheme.

Digital Bridge had sued VRG World for not meeting the standard criteria prescribed by the authorities and claimed that it should not be allowed to operate.

Digital Bridge claimed that the authorities had not allowed it to commence its operation although it had fulfilled the requirements besides making handsome investments so that the other operator may gain the advantage in the market in its absence.

VRG World stated that it had also fulfilled all the requirements, including an 11-step process and that it had maintained the paid-up capital of Rs. 200 million as the mandatory regulatory requirement.

On the other hand, Digital Bridge had failed to maintain the prescribed limit of the paid-up capital that was merely Rs. 10 million.

The SHC has allowed VRG World to continue its operations and has dismissed Digital Bridge’s case against it.

The legal battle between the two operators is part of their commercial rivalry that goes back a couple of years to when they were awarded licenses.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had issued two Third Party Service Provider (TPSP) licenses to VRG (Pvt.) Ltd. and Digital Bridge (Pvt.) Ltd. (DBL) in 2018 to bring the unbanked population into formal banking service.

The telecommunication watchdog had rebuffed VRG last year for running an ill-intended campaign in a section of the media to malign the regulator and influence regulatory decisions.

The PTA claimed that it had fully facilitated the TPSP licensees through a series of meetings and discussions to resolve the technical and financial issues between all the stakeholders over several months. However, instead of recognizing the efforts of the PTA, VRG had tried to malign it by publishing misinformation.

The PTA had then objected in a statement, claiming that VRG had slandered it for favoring Digital Bridge to put pressure on the former well before the 30 days notice for processing of commencement certificate that ended on 4 September 2020.

Source: Pro Pakistani

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 2,017 new companies in October, raising the total number of registered companies to 154,093.

Consequently, the total capitalization (paid-up-capital) of the new companies stood at Rs. 2.7 billion.

Around 99 percent of companies were registered online and 140 overseas users were also registered. The October incorporation consists of 63 percent private limited companies, 33 percent single-member companies, and three percent public unlisted companies, not-for-profit associations, and limited liability partnerships (LLP).

The construction and real estate sector took the lead with the incorporation of 369, trading with 302, and information technology with 270 new companies. These segments were followed closely by the services sector with 173 companies, e-commerce with 98 companies, food and beverages with 76 companies, and education with 67 companies.

The sector-wise details show the textile sector with 52 incorporations; chemical, pharmaceutical, and market and development with 47 incorporations each; corporate agricultural farming with 46 incorporations; engineering with 41 incorporations; transport with 38 incorporations; tourism with 35 incorporations; healthcare with 33 incorporations; auto and allied with 32 incorporations; mining and quarrying with 31 incorporations; logging with 21 incorporations; communication, and power generation with 19 incorporations each; cables and electric goods with 17 incorporations; broadcasting and telecasting, and cosmetics and toiletries with 16 incorporations each; fuel and energy with 15 incorporations; paper and board with 11 incorporations; and 79 companies were registered in other sectors.

Foreign investments were reported in 58 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Malta, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, the UAE, the UK, and the US.

Source: Pro Pakistani