Month: October 2018

ISLAMABAD:Ahmed Hassan Moughal has taken over charge as President, Raffat Farid Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi as Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) for the year 2018-19 in a handing over/taking over ceremony held here at Chamber House on Tuesday.

Speaking at the occasion, Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that the SBP has hiked the target policy rate by 100 basis points in one go taking it to 8.5 percent that would increase the credit cost for private sector and hamper the growth of business activities.

He said SBP interest rate affected all other interest rates in the economy making bank borrowing more expensive for the private sector. It would translate into further slowdown in the pace of economic activity, especially at a time when Pakistan badly needed to accelerate economic growth for sustainable development.

He called upon the government to revise the hike in SBP interest rate so that private sector could avail easy credit facility for expansion and growth.

He said he would focus on further strengthening the research and development wing of the Chamber to support SMEs and new startups. He asked the business community to keep sending him proposals for bringing further improvement in the working of the Chamber for their facilitation.

Raffat Farid, Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President ICCI said the SME sector was the backbone of Pakistan’s economy in terms of contribution to GDP, employment generation and export promotion, therefore, the government should take measures to further strengthen the SMEs.

They said due to high credit cost, share of SMEs in total private sector credit was already just 6 to 8 percent while the recent hike SBP key policy rate would further enhance credit cost for SMEs.

They urged that government should reconsider increase in SBP interest rate and focus on providing SMEs easy access to finance along with easing out the conditions of collaterals in order to help SMEs and startups to flourish and play more effective role in the economic development of the country.

ISLAMABAD:The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has extended the date for filing of Income Tax Returns and Statements till November 30.

In a statement, FBR said that during first quarter of the current financial year, it recorded a provisional net revenue collection of over 836 billion rupees. It said that Rs766 billion were collected during the same period of the previous fiscal year.

The statement said the provisional collection this month stands at Rs323 billion. It said this figure augurs well for the efforts of FBR towards achievement of the assigned revised annual revenue target of Rs4398 billion.

ISLAMABAD:Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi has said that Pakistan is keen to further strengthen its ties with Qatar.

He was talking to Ambassador of Qatar to Pakistan Saqr Bin Mubarak Al Mansouri who called on him here on Monday. During the meeting, matters of mutual interest including bilateral relations also came under discussion.

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Mohammad Sadiq Sanjrani has condemned firing on helicopter of Prime Minister Azad Jammu and Kashmir Raja Farooq Haider by Indian troops along Line of Control (LoC).

In a statement on Monday, he termed the incident as a cowardly act by Indian forces. He said India wants to destroy peace in the region and such acts reflect its frustration.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla, Leader of the House senator Shibli Faraz and opposition leader Raja Zafar-ul-Haq have also condemned the incident and asked the international community to take notice of it.

ISLAMABAD: Minster for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has strongly condemned the spread of fake news about the appointment of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf’s lawmaker Maleeka Bokhari as chairperson Benazir Income Support Program (BISP).

In a tweet, the Minister said that without affecting freedom of social media there is need to take strict action against such fake news.

He also tagged tweet of Maleeka Bokhari in which she has categorically refuted her appointment as BISP chairperson.

ISLAMABAD: According to a Gilani Research Foundation Survey carried out by Gallup and Gilani Pakistan, 77% Pakistanis support (completely or somewhat) Supreme Court’s decision of collecting funds for construction of dams.

A nationally representative sample of men and women from across the four provinces was asked “Some people in Pakistan support Supreme Court’s decision of collecting the funds from public for the construction of dams while others do not.

How much do you support or oppose this decision of collecting funds from public to construct dams?” In response to this question, 54% said that they completely support it, 23% said they somewhat support it, 14% said that they somewhat oppose it, 8% stated that they totally oppose this decision, while 1% did not know or respond to the question.

“Some people in Pakistan support Supreme Court’s decision of collecting the funds from public for the construction of dams while others do not. How much do you support or oppose this decision of collecting funds from public to construct dams?”

The study was released by Gilani Research Foundation and carried out by Gallup and Gilani Pakistan, the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International.

The recent survey was carried out among a sample of 1504 men and women in rural and urban areas of all four provinces of the country, July 16 – July 23, 2018. Error margin is estimated to be approximately ± 2-3 per cent at 95% confidence level.