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| June 09, 2008 | Monday | Jamadi-us-Sani 04, 1429 |
Making peace with powerful brokers
 The PPP government apparently panicked and yielded to the pressure of the brokers’ community by extending the capital gains tax exemption by not one but two years in an unusual move...
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Issues in provincialisation of sales tax on services
 Do provinces — particularly Punjab and Sindh with a strong base of their rapidly growing services sector — have the capacity to take over collection of the provincial sales tax on...
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Unrealistic target
 The coalition government is reported to have approved a Public Sector Development Programme of Rs541 billion for fiscal 2009 that is 11.2 per cent higher than the current year’s allocation....
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A paradigm shift in agriculture
 Along with an unsettled political situation, increasing acts of violence perpetrated by extremist groups operating from the country’s tribal areas and the quick unraveling of the model of economic growth pursued...
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Wheat crisis: a liberal perspective
 IN Pakistan economic liberalism has been behind all economic decisions except in the case of agricultural production.In manufacturing, we have embraced post-quota world and in services - banking, telecom, insurance, wholesale trade etc....
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Building dams
 The government has indicated that it has rejected the Kalabagh dam from among the five large dams. The dam has been a favourite of the World Bank and of president Ayub Khan and has a strong backing in the Punjab....
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Need to revamp the wheat supply chain
 A number of managerial problems tend to disrupt the supply chain as flour price has touched a record high and the government’s wheat procurement target of five million tons has been missed....
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Why a policy rate hike
 On May 22, the State Bank of Pakistan announced policy measures to facilitate the process of correction in the macroeconomic imbalances accumulated over the past few years....
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Power shortage or poor governance?
The government has approved new projects to add 2200 mw to the existing energy system by April 2009 in order to reduce load shedding....
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Amending labour laws
 In his first speech in the National Assembly, the Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani announced that the Industrial Relations Ordinance-2002- (IRO) would be repealed....
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World commodities
In the London market, oil fell by around $2 a barrel to $126 on June 3, after the US Federal Reserve issued a warning on the inflationary risk posed by a weak dollar....
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Turmoil in the civil aviation industry
 INDIA’S civil aviation sector, which has been flying high for the past few years after the government opened up the sector, is suddenly facing turbulence that could result in the grounding of its ambitious expansion plans....
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Kalabagh dam and political pressures
 THE Kalabagh controversy refuses to go away, even in its “abandoning”. As it appears, it would not get resolved in future either and keep haunting the nation....
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Slapdash solutions to economic problems
 Some of the gravest economic issues inherited by the elected government include inflation in general and food inflation in particular, rising oil prices, rising poverty, unemployment, energy deficit, current account deficit,...
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Will GCC break the dollar peg?
Last month, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson visited Saudi Arabia for his first official trip to the GCC countries to stress US openness to GCC-based investment as well as highlight the dangers to economic growth from surging oil prices....
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Right to fiscal autonomy
 All the four provinces now want the federal government to give up levying and collecting sales tax on services. After a joint meeting of all provincial ministers at Lahore, the...
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Weak growth and high inflation
 M.Ziauddin...
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Financing Rs2.2 trillion budget
How will the government find enough resources to finance the anticipated Rs2.25 trillion new budget? Answers are not easily forthcoming. Those who are at the helm of the affairs are reluctant...
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Oil price: super spike or a bubble about to burst?
 ON May 6, a leading American investment firm, Goldman Sachs, announced that oil was on the verge of another “super spike” and its price could go up as high as $200 a barrel within the next six to 24 months....
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CGT exemption puts stocks back on the rails
 THE Karachi Stock Exchange 100-share index last week virtually raced toward its pre-reaction level of 15,000 points as a combination of positive news including budgetary leaks and some fiscal relieves generated a lot of covering purchases almost on all counters....
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Rupee resists sharp decline
 The rupee was able to resist sharp losses in relation to dollar in both open and inter-bank markets this week as dollar inflows improved significantly. The tightening of monetary policy seems to have curb speculation and stabilised the currency....
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Commercial banks’ deposits fall
 At the Treasury bill auction on June 4, the cut off yield on 3 month, 6 month and 12 month T-bills rose....
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Dull trading as buyers stay on the sidelines
 PHYSICAL activity on the Karachi wholesale markets remained relatively slow as buyers kept to sidelines most of the time anticipating fresh fall in prices of essential commodities....
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