DAWN - Business; May 12, 2008

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May 12, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 6, 1429

Incentives for manufacturing A zero-rated import duty on raw materials has been proposed by the Planning Commission as part of the budget 2008-09 to improve the performance of the faltering ....		How to make power cost affordable? The industry is angry over abrupt and arbitrary decision of the privatised Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) for increasing the Fuel Adjustment Surcharge (FAS) by almost 100 per cent from March....

Pakistan’s rating on intellectual property rights PAKISTAN has once again been given a lower berth by the United States in its annual intellectual property rights ratings of foreign countries under the so-called ‘301 watch list.’...		Small growers at the mercy of middlemen MIDDLEMEN are individuals/business concerns who perform various marketing functions involved in the purchase and sale of goods as these move from producers to consumers. They are classified as commission agents, brokers, wholesalers and retailers....

Stagnant crop yield FOR the last over four years, the country has not been able to add even an acre to its existing cultivable land area, and the entire agricultural activities remain limited to 55.5...		Food insecurity: is there a way out? By: Muhammad Iqbal Tabish...

Small dams, big gains PRIME Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has committed, as part of his short-term national agenda of March 29, to build more small water storage dams countrywide on a fast track basis.The...		Is it a good option? Pakistan water sector is going through a crisis. Like energy, water demand is growing far more than available supply. Past efforts have focused more on enhancing supply through engineering solutions such as Indus basin development and other large scale investments....

Building strategic wheat reserves The federal cabinet has decided to import 1.5 million tons of wheat this year to deal with wheat and flour crises. Huge rise in prices of wheat and flour has caused significant reduction in the purchasing power of consumers....		World commodities Oil:...Oil which had set a new record high of $122 a barrel on May 6, rose to a fresh record of above $124 a barrel on May 8. Runway oil prices have almost doubled in the past year and have surged by more than

Thermal power plant contract On April 16, a local engineering company was awarded the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract — the first-ever to a Pakistani company — of an IPP (independent power producer) thermal power plant....		Future trading in commodities suspended IN a widely expected move, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government last week suspended futures trading in four commodities for four months, in a bid to curb rising inflation....

Corporate social responsibility versus philanthropy Generally, corporate philanthropy and corporate social responsibility are used interchangeably when the two concepts are not synonymous. A firm may be philanthropic without actually being socially responsible in the strictest sense of the term....		A tough situation to cope with However ingenious the formulae devised by the combination of politicians, experts and officials to cope with the economic situation, it will be an exceedingly tough task for them to deliver....

Pressure on UK to reform bribery laws The civil society in Britain, the OECD and the Transparency International (TI) have all expressed their extreme dismay over the recently published Woolf Committee Report’s silence on BAE Systems’ alleged recourse...		Punjab’s budget-making exercise The annual ritual of budget making in Punjab seems to be limping along the path as the leadership and legislators of the coalition partners - the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and...

Islamic Index for Sharia compliant investment THE Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has started work on introducing the Islamic Index at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) that will allow investment in companies compatible with the Islamic principles of doing business....		The illogical salary structures Dr Irfan, 27, a fresh medical graduate who works as a house officer at a local hospital draws a salary of Rs7000 little over $100 a month....

Economic, political worries trigger frantic selling THE weakness of rupee against US dollar continued to have its toll on the share market as investors remained in two minds how to manage a judicious balance between the falling rupee and the share values....		Panic buying creates dollar scarcity In recent weeks, the local currency market has been on a roller coaster ride with corporate importers engaged in booking L/C’s upon intervention of SBP. As a result, banks were again...

Commercial banks’ deposits increase At the Treasury bill auction on May 7, the cut off yield on 6 month T-bill rose to 9.9570 from 9.8686 per cent....		Unabated rise in prices of rice, pulses PRICES of essential items on the Karachi wholesale commodity markets were again traded higher as commercial traders were not inclined to loosen their grip over sources of supply....