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July 04, 2020: The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) has achieved its annual collection of net annual target of Rs 377 billion in the current fiscal year by June 30.

CDNS has set Rs 352 billion annual collection target for the year 2019-20 as compared to Rs 350 billion for the previous year’s 2018-19 to enhance savings and promoting saving culture in the country, a senior official of CDNS told APP here.

The directorate has also revised and increased the gross target of Rs1570 billion for the fiscal year 2019-20, he said.

The senior official said due to the rationalization of CDNS certificates’ rates, the directorate had collected more savings than expected, therefore CDNS revised its target upward from Rs 224 to 324 billion for FY 2018-19.

Replying to a question on current revision of CDNS certificate profit rates applicable from June 02, 2020, he said CDNS has reduced the interest rate by 1 percent on the savings certificates investment due to lower rates of Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIB).

He informed that the CDNS interest rates are linked with the policy of PIB, set by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Replying to a question on the reduction of CDNS profit rate, he said the rate of return on ‘Behbood Savings Certificates’ (BSC) reduced from 10.32 to 9.84 percent and as similarly Pensioner Benefit Accounts (PBA) recorded downwards from 10.32 to 9.84 percent.

The profit rates on ‘Shuhada Family Welfare Account’ also reduced from 10.32 to new rates of 9.84 percent applicable from June 02 of this year, he said.

He said the profit rates on ‘Defense Savings Certificates’ (DSC) was also reduced from 8.54 to 8.05 percent and interest rates on ‘Regular Income Certificates’ also downwards 8.28 to 7.44 percent according to the current market situation.

He informed that the profit rates on Special Savings Certificates (Registered)/Accounts was also reduced on all three categories of certificates from 1-5 Profit 8.00 to 7.10 percent , 6th Profit 8.60% 7.40 percent and Average 8.10 to 7.15 percent by June 02 , 2020.

The senior official said the Short Term Savings Certificates profit rates also reduced on different categories on months on month bases by 3-Months from 7.80 to 7.72 , on 6-Months certificates 7.50 to 7.36 percent and on 12-Months slightly increased from 6.95 to 7.30 percent.

He said the profit rates on Savings Account (SA) had also been reduced from 7.00 to 6.50 percent decided by last meeting held in Ministry of Finance.

Replying to a question, he said CDNS did not accept institutional investment, but only individual investment was encouraged to deposit for saving in the National Savings.

APP

July 03, 2020: Defending six-time champion Lewis Hamilton topped the times ahead of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas as Formula One roared back at Friday's opening practice at the belated and surreal season-opening Austrian Grand Prix.

Three months after the cancellation of the original campaign starter in Australia and six months on from the last race meeting, it was business as usual for the dominant black arrows with Max Verstappen third for Red Bull ahead of McLaren's Ferrari-bound Carlos Sainz.

After a slow start on a damp surface at the Red Bull Ring, following overnight rain, Hamilton, sporting a new Black Lives Matter helmet to match his black race suit, was on the pace immediately in his W11 car of the same colour, repainted from silver this year to support equality and diversity.

It was as if the lengthy delay created by the COVID-19 pandemic had no affect on the teams, cars and drivers other than Ferrari whose new SF91 machine was, as forecast, unable to match the pace set at the front by Mercedes.

Ferrari plan to revise their car with updates for the Hungarian race in two weeks time following the second event in Austria next week.

Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, who is set to leave the outfit at the end of the year, struggled to 12th, two places behind team-mate Charles Leclerc, in the eerie surroundings of the fan-less circuit in the Styrian Alps where pit-stops were curiously controlled with all the mechanics in masks and protective gear.

In mild weather conditions, with track temperatures measured at 22 degrees Celsius compared to 57 degrees for last year's race, Mercedes had no cooling problems as Hamilton outpaced Bottas by three-tenths and was six-tenths clear of Verstappen.

Sergio Perez was fifth in Racing Point's 'pink Mercedes' ahead of Lando Norris in the second McLaren, Alex Albon in the other Red Bull and McLaren-bound Daniel Ricciardo of Renault. Kevin Magnussen was ninth for Haas.

The session saw Verstappen recover from a spin at Turn One and Daniil Kvyat of Alpha Tauri run off at the final corner, causing Williams' George Russell to take dramatic avoiding action while Romain Grosjean was stuck in the Haas garage with brake problems throughout the session.

AFP/APP

July 03, 2020: Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) as operator with (50% share), Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL) (33.33%) & Saif Energy Limited (SEL)(16.67%) in joint venture of Kohat Exploration Licence (E.L) has started commercial production of Gas and Condensate from its exploratory well Togh # 01, which is located in district Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

OGDCL indigenously completed 8” inch dia, 3.5 Km flow line from |Togh Well # 01 to Sheikhan Well # 01. The well head assembly and other allied facilities including gathering area, separation facility, dehydration plant, storage facility, dispatch pumping station, gantry area and metering station were constructed using in-house resources.

On June 30th 2020 the first gas was successfully injected into M/s SNGPL network wherein OGDCL is committed to provide 9.0 MMSCFD gas and 240 barrel per day (BPD) of condensate.

OGDCL is aimed to intensifying field development activities, completion of ongoing development projects and utilization of latest production techniques to maintain and optimize oil & gas output.

The startup of commercial production would increase the oil and gas production of the Company and the Country thus helping in mitigating ever growing demand of domestic consumers and industry.

Press Release

July 3, 2020: The number of working hours lost across the world in the first half of 2020 was significantly worse than previously estimated, while the highly uncertain recovery in the second half of the year will not be enough to go back to pre-pandemic levels, even in the best scenario, and risks seeing continuing large scale job losses, warns the International Labour Organization (ILO).

According to the ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work: 5th Edition, there was a 14 per cent drop in global working hours during the second quarter of 2020, equivalent to the loss of 400 million full-time jobs (based on a 48-hour working week). This is a sharp increase on the previous Monitor’s estimate (issued on May 27), of a 10.7 per cent drop (305 million jobs).

The new figures reflect the worsening situation in many regions over the past weeks, especially in developing economies. Regionally, working time losses for the second quarter were: Americas (18.3 per cent), Europe and Central Asia (13.9 per cent), Asia and the Pacific (13.5 per cent), Arab States (13.2 per cent), and Africa (12.1 per cent).  

The vast majority of the world’s workers (93 per cent) continue to live in countries with some sort of workplace closures, with the Americas experiencing the greatest restrictions.

Key challenges ahead

While countries have adopted policy measures with unprecedented speed and scope, the Monitor highlights some key challenges ahead:

Finding the right balance and sequencing of health, economic and social and policy interventions to produce optimal sustainable labour market outcomes.

Implementing and sustaining policy interventions at the necessary scale when resources are likely to be increasingly constrained.

Protecting and promoting the conditions of vulnerable, disadvantaged and hard-hit groups to make labour markets fairer and more equitable.

Securing international solidarity and support, especially for emerging and developing countries.

Strengthening social dialogue and respect for rights.

“The decisions we adopt now will echo in the years to come and beyond 2030. Although countries are at different stages of the pandemic and a lot has been done, we need to redouble our efforts if we want to come out of this crisis in a better shape than when it started,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder.

ILO

July 3, 2020 (MLN): The Ministry of Industries and Production submitted a proposal to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Friday, which stated that the national inventory for Urea fertilizer would be below the buffer stock level of 200,000 metric tonnes in the months of December 2020 to February 2021.

The ECC took up the proposal and decided that in order to cover this gap and maintain the buffer stocks at the required level, gas at the rate of Rs 756 MMBTU be provided to two shutdown plants at SNGPL networks, namely Agritech and Fatima Fertilizer, for three months w.e.f. July-September.

This would involve the GoP’s share at Rs 959 million much less than the revenue spent previously on using these plants to produce the Urea fertilizer to cover up the shortage.

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