Bringing agro sector into tax net inevitable: Tarin
June 2, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Breaking News
KARACHI: Former Minister of Finance Shaukat Tarin has declared the revenue resources could not be increased in the country without bringing agriculture sector into tax net, and tax on agriculture should be levied by the government without further delay.
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Bringing agro sector into tax net inevitable: Tarin
Denmark ups assistance to Pakistan
January 12, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
TrendPK.com This was announced by Danish Minister for Development Cooperation, Ulla Toernaes during her meeting with Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin on Monday.
During the meeting, Tarin briefed the visiting minister about the state of Pakistan’s economy and the nine-point agenda for economic development of the country.
Toernaes appreciated Pakistan’s role in the [...]
Pakistan Likely to Get $1.2 Billion From IFM by December: Tareen
Pakistan: Pakistan Likely to Get $1.2 Billion From IFM by December: Tareen, Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tareen says that an aid of $1.2 billion is expected to come to Pakistan from IMF by December.
Talking to media in Karachi he said that CNG stations would be kept close in country two days a week due to gas crisis in the country. He said that gas shortage would be overcome by doing so however the government would try that industrial production doesn’t get affected.
Pakistan Likely to Get $1.2 Billion From IFM by December: Tareen was first posted on November 7, 2009 at 3:49 pm.
Pakistan Likely to Get $1.2 Billion From IFM by December: Tareen
Pakistan: Pakistan Likely to Get $1.2 Billion From IFM by December: Tareen, Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tareen says that an aid of $1.2 billion is expected to come to Pakistan from IMF by December.
Talking to media in Karachi he said that CNG stations would be kept close in country two days a week due to gas crisis in the country. He said that gas shortage would be overcome by doing so however the government would try that industrial production doesn’t get affected.
Pakistan Likely to Get $1.2 Billion From IFM by December: Tareen was first posted on November 7, 2009 at 3:49 pm.
Punjab shows flexibility in National Finance Commission ( NFC ) meeting
QUETTA , Pakistan – Punjab shows flexibility in National Finance Commission ( NFC ) meeting, National Finance Commission (NFC) has agreed to award revenues generated through General Sales Tax (GST) on Services to provinces, which will result in additional revenue of 60 billion rupees for the provinces.
Punjab Finance Minister Tanveer Ashraf Kaira stated this while briefing the newsmen after NFC’s first day session in the provincial capital, which met with Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tareen in chair.
Provincial Finance Ministers Tanveer Ashraf Kaira (Punjab), Muhammad Hamayun Khan (NWFP) and Asim Kurd Gailoo (Balochistan) along with other federal and provincial government officials attended the meeting.
Terming the decision regarding the GST on Services a big progress, Tanveer Ashraf Kaira said the provincial governments, particularly Sindh, had reservations on the issue because the federal govt was receiving the tax unconstitutionally.
He said after the expert opinion, the federal government accepted the GST on Services as a provincial right and in future would be given to the provinces.
Replying to a question, he said the federal govt would continue its collection as practiced in the past, but later on, would transfer the amount to the provinces.
Kaira said the agenda was comprised of three points: vertical and horizontal distribution of resources, GST on Services and Gas Development Surcharge (GDS), adding that issues of GST on Services and GDS were discussed Monday’s session and a consensus was reached on the first one.
As far as GDS was concerned, the committee, which was formed in the last session, submitted its report, Kaira informed the journalists.
Punjab shows flexibility in National Finance Commission ( NFC ) meeting was first posted on October 13, 2009 at 9:53 am.
NFC Meeting Underway in Quetta
QUETTA: A meeting of National Finance Commission (NFC) underway here with Minister of Finance Shaukat Tarin in chair.
The two-day meeting attended by three provincial finance minister and Chief Minister of Syed Qaim Ali Shah, to discuss the Gas Development Surcharge, sales tax on services and the contentious issues between federation and the provinces and within provinces.
NFC Meeting Underway in Quetta was first posted on October 12, 2009 at 3:39 pm.
Wall Street Effects On Asian Stocks Market
HONG KONG: Asian shares pulled back on Wednesday after a sell-off on Wall Street prompted a round of profit-taking, even as upbeat Australian economic growth figures reassured on the health of recovery.
Japan’s Nikkei average led losses with a drop of 2.6 percent after a slide in financial shares hit U.S. indexes, while the drop in oil prices the previous day took a toll on resource related shares such as oil-and-gas field developer Inpex.
Some of Tuesday’s sharp moves partially reversed as markets settled down.
U.S. crude oil prices rose 57 cents a barrel to $68.62 having slid nearly 3 percent the previous day. The Australian dollar climbed 0.5 percent to $0.8300, bouncing back from its biggest one-day drop since June.
The Aussie got a boost after data showed Australian second-quarter GDP rose a surprisingly strong 0.6 percent from the previous quarter, reviving expectations for the country’s central bank to start raising policy rates from the current 3 percent as soon as November.
Manufacturing surveys from around the world on Tuesday provided more evidence that the global recovery accelerated in August. JPMorgan’s global gauge of factory activity showed growth returning for the first time in 15 months.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is poised to be the first among major central banks to start raising rates and normalizing the extremely loose policies around the world that were aimed at reviving the global economy from the worst recession in decades.
“That supports the Reserve Bank’s case for an eventual rise in interest rates. We think maybe they’ll go in November, but they don’t want to move too fast and endanger the recovery,” said Brian Redican, senior economist at Macquarie in Sydney.
The Australian dollar took a hit the previous day after the RBA declined to adopt an outright bias toward a tighter policy at a regular meeting, even as the central bank highlighted the economy’s strength.
The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.3 percent, holding up better compared with a 2.2 percent drop in the U.S. S&P 500 on Tuesday.
Material and financial shares were the biggest drag on the MSCI benchmark for Asia.
Helping limit losses was a 1.6 percent jump in the Shanghai Composite index, helped by gains in Sinopec and PetroChina after China hiked fuel prices to a near-record high.
PetroChina, the Shanghai Composite’s most heavily weighted stock, gained 1.56 percent but its Hong Kong-listed shares dipped 1.3 percent.
The Shanghai index was up for a second day running and seemed to regain its composure after a nearly 7 percent sell-off on Monday.
Worries about banks clamping down on lending after a splurge earlier in the year to pay for government stimulus have spooked the market. But analysts have warned investors not to read too much into the opaque and volatile market mostly closed to foreigners.
In currencies, the dollar was little changed after jumping the previous day as the Aussie and euro fell back on the slide in riskier assets.
The dollar index, a gauge of its performance against six major currencies, was flat at 78.744.
But against the yen, the dollar dipped as far as 92.51 yen, a seven-week low, as the Japanese currency posted broad gains from renewed worries about holding risky positions in higher-yielding currencies.
Government bond markets extended their winning streak, one of the signals that has worried some investors by suggesting the stock market rebound may be overdone.
The yield on five-year Japanese government bonds fell a basis point to 0.590 percent, a four-year low and underscoring how ultra-low interest rates are expected to persist for a while in the Bank of Japan’s battle against deflation.
Wall Street Effects On Asian Stocks Market was first posted on September 2, 2009 at 10:42 am.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.
TCP Decision On Suger Import
ISLAMABAD : The Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Tuesday allowed import of 100,000 tons of sugar to meet domestic requirements of the country. The ECC meeting, presided over by Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin, took serious notice of shortage of sugar in the Utility Stores Corporation and directed the Ministry of Industries to take stern administrative action against the culprits responsible for creating hurdles in smooth supply of sugar.
Keeping in view the export parity price, low domestic prices, cost escalating factors and future forecast of the world supply and demand, the ECC approved the intervention price for paddy crop 2009-10 at Rs 1250 per 40 kg for super basmati, Rs 1000 for basmati-385, and Rs 600 for Irri paddy. The ECC also allowed provinces transportation of imported wheat and preference for the mode of transportation will be Railways, NLC and the private transport contractors and companies.
The meeting decided that Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) would establish effective co-ordination with the provinces for efficient and timely measures for transportation of the imported wheat. The decisions were taken on the recommendations of the committee formed by ECC in December 2008 with the mandate to thoroughly investigate the matter regarding transportation of wheat purchased by TCP from Karachi to other provinces.
On the issue of additional charges for transportation of imported urea from Gwadar Port, the ECC approved additional freight charges from Gwadar to Karachi from December, 22 2008 to March 2009 as Rs 798,209,950, from April 1 to August 12, Rs 713,980,518.
The ECC also allowed issuance of Government of Pakistan’s guarantee of Rs 1075 million, by the Ministry of Finance, in favour of National Bank of Pakistan for rescheduling of loan of Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP).
The ECC was informed that total stock of wheat as on August 23, 2009 amounted to 9.599 million tons as against 3.623 million tons in the same period last year, thereby showing a higher stock of about 5.976 million tons. The trade deficit improved by 31.09 percent to $1.15 billion in July 2009-10 from $1.66 billion in the same period last year. The foreign exchange reserves stood at $13.1 billion as on August 28, 2009 – up from $6.4 billion on November 25, 2008.
The provisional FBR tax collection stood at Rs 74.07 billion on net basis during July 2009-10 as compared to Rs 72.36 billion in the same period last year. Overseas workers’ remittances amounted to $747.2 million in July 2009-10 as against $627.2 million, showing an increase of 19.13 percent over the same period last year. Monthly core inflation rate has decreased 15.9 percent in June, 2009 to 14.0 percent in July 2009.
TCP Decision On Suger Import was first posted on September 2, 2009 at 10:55 am.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.
National Finance Commission Award’s 2nd Round Today
August 28, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under Breaking News
ISLAMABAD: Second session of the opening meeting of the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award with Minister of Finance Shaukat Tarin in chair being held today in Islamabad.
In the first session on Thursday the centre and provinces finalized the agenda of the NFC Award with unanimity.
The commission had included all contentious issues in the agenda for an NFC meeting today (Friday), in line with a demand by the provinces. The level of poverty and backwardness, the impacts of the war against terrorism, sales tax on the services sector and hydal net profit were included in the agenda of the commission.
Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah told reporters after attending the first meeting of the reconstituted NFC that the commission had included all contentious in the agenda. He said the federating units were of the view that an agenda prepared by elected representatives from all provinces should be followed, and “thanks to the chairman, our demand was accepted”.
He said the federal government would be strengthened further if the federating units were economically empowered. He said Friday’s presentation on resource availability would help provinces form a consensus over what should be demanded from the federal government in the new NFC.
He hoped that despite a huge agenda including new issues, the NFC Award would be finalised by the end of September. He said that the new award would be finalised according to the aspirations of the provinces, as the last two awards were finalised by non-elected persons.
NWFP Finance Minister Humayun Khan was of the view that his province needed additional help, along with an increased share in the NFC Award, as the war on terror had affected the provincial economy. He said the province had been unable to develop its infrastructure because of the non-payment of net hydel profits.
Punjab Finance Minister Tanvir Ashraf Kaira told reporters that Punjab was participating in NFC negotiations with “an open mind … any revenue-sharing formula agreed by other provinces will be acceptable to us if Punjab’s demands are met”.
Balochistan Finance Minister Mir Asim Kurd said a “sense of deprivation” had prevailed in the province for the last 63 years. He said the Balochistan government wanted to bring the province at par with other federating units, and “for this purpose we need an increase in the NFC share”.
Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tareen told reporters that Thursday’s NFC deliberations had, to a large extent, removed the apprehensions among stakeholders, and paved way for smooth negotiations.
He said despite the inclusion of new issues in the NFC agenda, it would not be difficult to finalise the new award. He said several committees were to be formed to resolve each and every issue raised by the provinces in the minimum possible time.
National Finance Commission Award’s 2nd Round Today was first posted on August 28, 2009 at 11:13 am.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.
ECC Approves Ramazan Package
PAKISTAN, ISLAMABAD: The Economic Co-ordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC) has abolished 25 percent regulatory duty on import of potatoes with a view to ensure its availability during Ramazan and to discourage hoarding for creating artificial price hike.
A special meeting of the ECC, chaired by Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin here on Tuesday approved ‘Ramazan Package’ in compliance with the directives of the Prime Minister to ensure availability of essential commodities at affordable rates in Ramazan.
The meeting decided that the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) would sell 100,000 tons sugar through its outlets, instead of the normal sale of 40,000 tons per month, at Rs 38 per kg during Ramazan. To facilitate it, extra sugar will be released from imported stocks. This will be equivalent to one-third of total consumption of the country of white sugar and should effectively check price escalation.
As part of the ‘Ramazan Package’, instead of the agreed 100,000 tons of atta, at Rs 2/kg less than the market, 150,000 tons will be sold through Utility Stores outlets. Similarly, instead of the agreed upon 30,000 tons of ghee/oil, 50,000 tons would be made available @ Rs 91/kg ie at a differential of Rs 20/kg against the market price of ghee. The ECC waived the condition of presentation of ID card for purchasing items from USC.
The ECC also approved implementation of Combined Cycle Project at Guddu by Genco-II under the management of Pepco, at the EPC price of $602 million. The meeting also authorised the Genco-II/Pepco to enter into contract with HPE, after fulfilling codal formalities, and undertake financing of project through banks’ best offer in consultation with the Finance Division and Economic Affairs Division. It was decided that the Ministry of Finance would provide the requisite guarantee, on behalf of the Government of Pakistan, for the credit facility of the project.
ECC Approves Ramazan Package was first posted on August 19, 2009 at 11:51 am.
