Category: Sales

President Dr Arif Alvi has called upon the business community to launch Corporate Social Responsibility projects to create awareness for resolving social, health and environment related issues.

He was talking to a delegation of Faisalabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry led by its President Nighat Shahid, in Islamabad on Wednesday.

The President said our dream to make Pakistan an economically and financially independent country would remain elusive if we fail to mainstream the women population in the economy.

He expressed concern over the low level of disbursement of loans for women entrepreneurs and business persons.

He called upon all the Chambers of Commerce to encourage and motivate women entrepreneurs and skilled women to avail these loans from designated banks by proactively helping them in the documentation process and managing other issues faced by them.

Earlier, the delegation apprised the President of the achievements of the Women Chamber of Commerce and the difficulties faced by its members in terms of taxes, rising costs of the business inputs and the requirement of lengthy procedures of documentation while applying for business loans.

 

Source: Radio Pakistan

The government on Thursday announced another hike in prices of petroleum products, taking the cumulative amount of all hikes since May 26 up to Rs. 132 per liter.

According to the notification issued by the Finance Division, petrol will now be priced at Rs. 248.74 per liter, followed by high-speed diesel at Rs. 276.54 per liter, kerosene oil at Rs. 230.20 per liter and light diesel at Rs. 226.61 per liter. The new prices will come into effect from midnight tonight.

As per the notification, Rs. 10 petroleum levy has been applied on petrol and Rs. 5 each on all other products.

“In view of the fluctuations in petroleum prices in the international market and the exchange rate variation, the government has decided to apply a petroleum levy partially and revise the existing prices of petroleum products as agreed with the development partners,” the Finance Division said in a statement.

GST and Petroleum Levy

It is pertinent to mention here that the federal government has set a target to collect Rs. 750 billion on account of the petroleum development levy (PDL) in fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23).

The government has agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a schedule to increase the prices of petroleum products by imposing a 17 percent general sales tax (GST) and PDL of Rs. 50 per liter during FY23.

The government and IMF have agreed on a schedule to impose GST and PDL on petroleum products from 1st July 2022 to June 2023 for the revival of the stalled loan program.

Background

Giving in to the insistence of the IMF to abolish the subsidies on petroleum products, the government had raised the prices of all petroleum products by Rs. 30 per liter on May 26.

This was followed by another hike of Rs. 30 per liter merely days later, followed by the third hike on June 15.

Before the increase on May 26, the price of petrol and high-speed diesel was Rs. 149.86 and Rs. 144.15 per liter, respectively. Similarly, the price of kerosene and light diesel oil was Rs. 125.56 and Rs. 118.31 per liter, respectively.

Source: Radio Pakistan

Pakistan’s growth has been stunted by the inability to mobilize all of its talent and resources, and to allocate them to productive uses, says the World Bank.

The Bank in its latest report “Pakistan Country Economic Memorandum”, stated that the country’s growth prospects are directly associated with the ability of its firms to grow large and productive over time, so that they create good quality job opportunities for the increasing working age population.

Growth has been low and consumption driven with implications on macro imbalances and long-term growth sustainability because low growth contributions of investment and exports are associated with productivity stagnation which also shows at the firm level and in part driven by lower capital deepening with many firms are not investing enough even to replace their depreciation which means they do not grow large (or ‘wise’) as they grow old and showing in underwhelming performance of Pakistani firms in demanding global markets in fact, lack of global integration is both cause and consequence of low productivity growth.

Slow structural transformation is also symptomatic of low productivity growth and quality job creation and while more recently, this process has accelerated but a supply constraint – low female labor force participation – may reduce the scope for further accelerations.

The report noted that since 2000, Pakistan’s real GDP per capita growth has been low at around 2.0 percent – almost 2.7 percentage points lower than the South Asian average. Not only is the contribution of exports and investment to overall growth in aggregate demand low from a long-term perspective and a cross-country comparison, but it has also declined.

During 1999-00-2009-10, exports and investment demand added on average 1.4 percentage points to aggregate demand growth. This contribution fell to an average of 0.7 percentage points during 2009-10 — 2019-20.

Low investment rates more than offset high consumption (therefore low saving). Structural challenges to mobilize revenues to match high government expenditures, resulted in systematic public sector deficits.

As a result, Pakistan has had current account deficits for 16-21 years since the turn of the century. As a result, risks of balance of payments crisis and macro instability have increased.

In 2018, an average worker in Pakistan produced only 38.1 percent more output than in 1991, while one from Vietnam produced 257.6 percent more than in 1991.

Source: Radio Pakistan