October 06, 2019 (MLN): The departed week witnessed series of several important developments that have a direct impact on the economic operations of Pakistan. These developments include:
On Friday, Prime Minister Imran Khan while chairing a meeting regarding revival of Pakistan Steel Mills, has said government is making every possible effort to revive it and making it a profitable organization.
Meanwhile, the Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) on Friday, revised down cotton production target for the running season by almost 24% to touch 10.02 million bales against the initial target of 13.34 million bales.
On Thursday, Universal Gas Distribution Company (UGDC), a private sector entity of Pakistan, signed two separate deals with multinational companies for import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) after the government introduced ease-of-doing-business plan.
On the upside, the top businessmen consortium from Egypt and Lebanon assured an investment of USD 1 Billion in the next 12 months in various sectors, including health, Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme, farming, exchange of technology in fertilizer and agriculture sector. They further announced a USD 500 Million energy project investment.
On Wednesday, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance & Revenue chaired a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet and approved a proposal submitted by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research for release of 150,000 tonnes to the provincial governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as release of 100,000 tonnes to Sindh subject to release of same quantity of wheat by the latter from its own stocks.
In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), in continuation of its enforcement drive against non-compliant companies has revoked licenses of twenty-two (22) not for profit companies during the first quarter of current fiscal year.
On Tuesday, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Shabbar Zaidi, informed that the tax collection up to 90 percent of highly aggressive target for quarter ended September 30, 2019, has been achieved. In his tweet he said, “domestic tax collection increased by 25 percent. The import contraction is around USD 3 billion. The effect of that is around 125 billion. This shows that target has been met”
The federal government on Monday decided to maintain the prices of petroleum products at the current level to offset expected increase in the prices for the month of November 2019.
Furthermore, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) issued a price-revision notification of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for the month of October as per which the locally produced LPG price increased by Rs147.87 per cylinder of 11.8 kilogram.
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