Category: Business

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Wednesday expressed serious concern over a floodgate of supplementary grants during the year, raising question marks over sanctity of the federal budget approved by the parliament. The ECC also approved the launch of advertisement campaigns for promotion of five prime minister’s schemes —Poverty Alleviation (Ehsas […]

LAHORE: Major technical constraints in the 220/500kV system have almost been removed, enabling the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) to ensure a trouble-free power transmission to the 120kV network of the electricity distribution companies (Discos). Among all provinces, Punjab will be the major beneficiary since the 220/500kV grids and transmission system here continued to […]

KARACHI: The government is examining a proposal to introduce the Treasury Single Account (TSA) to shift deposits of various government departments and organisations with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). “While the proposal to introduce TSA is being examined by the Government of Pakistan in consultation with the SBP as part of its agenda to […]

BEIRUT: Lebanon is set to impose austerity measures to combat its bulging fiscal deficit, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said on Wed­nesday, warning of an economic “catastrophe” if public spending keeps rising. “As a government, we are required to issue the most austere budget in Lebanon’s history because our financial position doesn’t allow us to increase […]

The federal cabinet on Wednesday again deferred the approval of the much-awaited tax amnesty scheme because some of its provisions require “further fine-tuning”, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry announced. Prime Minister Imran Khan had convened a special meeting of the cabinet today after some of the ministers opposed the amnesty plan, expressed their reservations and sought further clarification […]

A local court in Karachi on Wednesday ordered the attachment of 20 bank accounts suspected of having been used in three cases involving the illicit transfer of foreign exchange, money laundering and benami accounts. Acting on an application submitted by the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) Karachi, the court ordered that the accounts be attached […]

Germany’s BMW will recall 360,000 vehicles in China as part of the worldwide effort to root out defective airbags made by now-defunct Japanese supplier Takata, regulators in Beijing said. Around 20 people have died in accidents linked to defects in Takata airbags since 2013, prompting a massive worldwide recall of at least 100 million cars […]

A landing party agreement signed between Cybernet Pakistan and PEACE Cable International Network Company Ltd is set to increase Pakistan’s internet infrastructure capacity by 96 terrabits per second with the country’s first carrier-neutral, open-access submarine cable system. Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) Cable International Network Company Ltd and Cyber Internet Services Pvt Ltd […]

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s economy is projected to slow down significantly and weigh on the region’s aggregate growth rate, says Jihad Azour, director of the Middle East and Central Asia department at the International Monetary Fund. At a recent talk on the economic outlook for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (MENAP) region, Azour argued […]

ISLAMABAD: Amid criticism over dollar-based tariff indexations, unnatural profits in the power sector and over Rs664 billion capacity charges, the government is in negotiations with independent power producers (IPPs) to secure concessions in various heads and bring down overall power costs. Briefing the Senate Stand­ing Committee on Power presided over by Senator Fida Muhammad, Secretary […]