Textile
sector: Government proposes Rs200b ‘bailout’ package:
In a bid to save the
sector, Minister for Commerce Engineer Khurram Dastgir Wednesday said that the
government has proposed a Rs200-billion bailout package for the revival and
modernisation of the textile industry.While informing the Senate Standing
Committee on Textile, he said that a special package was under consideration
meant to introduce new technology and infrastructural modernisation in the
sector. The commerce minister said that the government would give special
incentives on taxes to enhance value addition. “The government is committed to
the technological revival of the textile sector and is willing to compete with
other regional competitors.”In the six-member high level committee, relevant
ministries and stakeholders were constituted to review the challenges facing
the textile industry.He added that the committee came up with a comprehensive
recommendation for the revival of the textile industry.On the occasion, the
committee showed strong reservations over the performance of the Pakistan
Central Cotton Committee.Dastgir added that the government was looking into
developing public private partnerships for better solution and enhancing the
capacity of the institution, which is currently not functioning.In the meeting,
the committee had reservations on decreasing cotton production and called for
improving seed quality and providing fertiliser to farmers.
All
bids for PIBs rejected:
All bids for Pakistan
Investment Bonds (PIBs) were rejected on Wednesday as investors asked for
higher returns.The government did not show interest as it has already offloaded
a major chunk of long-term, costly PIBs during the first two months of the
current fiscal year.Investors said banks are not interested in long-term
investment because the trading of PIBs in the secondary market is not
attractive.“The margin of profit in the secondary market for PIBs has dropped
sharply while investors holding a large chunk of PIBs are feeling stuck,” said
the director of an investment company.Investors said the banks did not show any
interest in long-term PIBs. Their bids for three-year PIBs amounted to Rs63
billion while they were Rs10bn and Rs2bn for five-year and 10-year PIBs,
respectively.Banks are cautious about the inflation pattern that may push up
the interest rate in coming months. They have been piling bonds as the best
instrument with a risk-free high yield.However, with falling inflation, returns
on PIBs came down drastically, impacting the banks’ profitability.
Packaging
material makers losing business to informal rivals:
Registered
manufacturers/suppliers of packaging material claim they have lost a good chunk
of their business linked directly with exports.Imports of two major raw
materials have almost stopped after exporters shifted their focus to
non-registered manufacturers/suppliers to avoid 17 per cent sales tax, which is
not refundable under input tax credit/refund.The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)
is currently implementing a statutory regulatory order (SRO) under which the
input tax credit/refund of packaging material of all sorts has been disallowed
July 1 onwards.
USAID
to make $60m available for clean energy:
Under the new energy
initiative, ‘US-Pakistan Partnership for Access to Credit’, the USAID will make
at least $60 million funds available to Pakistan in the coming years for clean
energy projects. This was stated by a US delegation visiting the country.United
States Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Michael Froman led the delegation
to Islamabad to discuss the ongoing US-Pakistan Trade and Investment Framework
Agreement (TIFA).
External
debt soared by $13b in govt’s tenure:
The incumbent
government has added $13 billion to the external debt and Rs3.1 trillion to the
domestic debt during last three and a half years, which resulted in pushing the
country’s debt to the higher side.Director General (DG) Debt of Ministry of
Finance informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue that
incumbent government had taken total debt of $24.99 billion from external
sources during July 2013 to June 2016 and it repaid $12 billion back to them.He
further informed that around $12.99 billion debt is outstanding, which has been
added to external debt.Giving further details, he said that country’s total
external debt and liabilities have increased to $72.8 billion.He further
informed that total external debt stood at $57.8 billion, while non-public debt
of $15 billion was not the obligation of the government.Meanwhile, the
government took domestic borrowings worth Rs3.1 trillion during last three and
a half years.
Consumers
using local gas will not bear charges of LNG projects:
Only the consumers
using the Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) will fund the infrastructure
projects related to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import and the users of natural
gas will not burdened with the cost, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA)
spokesman said on Wednesday.The spokesman stressed that misreporting by a
section of press was misleading the consumers.
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