LTFF Scheme For Usance LCs of Plant and Machinery
Saturday, June 27, 2009
In order to further facilitate the export oriented industries following amendments have been made in LTFF Scheme with immediate effect:-
- LCs (sight and usance) established before the announcement of the LTFF Scheme and retired after June 30, 2007 shall also be eligible for financing under the Scheme. However, LCs which have been retired through own sources of the sponsors of the export oriented industries, shall not be eligible under the Scheme.
- Financing for plant, machinery & equipment to be used by the export oriented projects for regeneration of textile waste into usable fiber for producing value added exportable products shall also be eligible under the subject Scheme.
- Refinancing shall be allowed to the extent of 50% of financing provided by banks/DFIs to the eligible borrowers availing facilities under para i & ii, while the remaining 50% will be financed by the banks/DFIs from their own sources as per the terms & conditions of financing banks/DFIs agreed with the borrowers.
Source: State Bank of Pakistan
posted @ 9:34 AM,
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Money Market, Forex and General News 24-06-09
Thursday, June 25, 2009
MONEY MARKET
Money market opened in the band of 11.50/12.0 percent. Overnight repo rates topped at 13.50 percent but calmed down later on and closed at 12.0 percent.
FOREX
- Inter bank opened at 81.45 & 81.52.Market swung both ways as pressure on buying was seen due to which market shot up to 81.69.
- Later on market rebounded and made a low of 81.48. After losing ten basis points at bid and eight basis points at offer side, inter bank closed at 81.55 & 81.60.
GENERAL NEWS
- Credit to the agriculture sector will remain much below the target set by the State Bank for the year 2008-09 despite significantly higher disbursement by the commercial banks.
- The SBP had set Rs250 billion as the agriculture credit target for the current financial year ending on June 30, 2009. During the eleven months of this year, total agriculture disbursements were Rs202 billion.
- The average monthly credit was Rs18.36 billion, while the remaining amount to chase the annual target is Rs48 billion.
- Banks may not be able to disburse Rs48 billion in one month, which means the annual target for agriculture credit disbursement has already been missed.
- The SBP had set 25 per cent higher target for agriculture sector compared to last year’s target of Rs200 billion.
- Country’s oil bill witnessed a record negative growth of over 15 per cent in the first 11 months (July-May) of the outgoing fiscal year In absolute term, the import value of oil (crude and products) dropped by 15.26 per cent to $8.556 billion in the July-May period as compared to $10.097 billion in the corresponding period last year Pakistan gained $1.233 billion because of the fall in imports prices of soyabean oil, palm oil, petroleum products, petroleum crude, fertilizer and plastic material.
Source: NBP Treasury
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 2:39 PM,
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Best Corporate Report Winners - 2008
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Have a look at the List of Best Coporate Report (BCR) Winners of 2008 published by ICAP
Overall Position
Siemens (Pakistan) Engineering Co. Limited
Engineering
1 Siemens (Pakistan) Engineering Co. Limited
2 Crescent Steel & Allied Products
3 International Industries Limited
4 Hinopak Motors Limited
5 Atlas Honda Limited
Fuel & Energy
1 Pakistan Petroleum Limited
2 Pakistan Oilfleds Limited
3 Attock PetroleumLimited
4 Oil & Gas Development Company Limited
5 Attcock Refinery Limited
Chemical & Fertilizer
1 Fauji Fertilizer CompanY Limited
2 ICI Pakistan Limited
3 Glaxosmithkiln Pakistan Limited
4 Dawood Hercules Chemical Limited
5 Sanofi Avantis Pakistan Limited
Financial Sector - Banks
1 Askari Bank Limited
2 Allied Bank Limited
3 Faysal Bank Limited
4 Meezan Bank Limited
5 Muslim Commercial Bank Limited
Financial Sector - NBFIs
1 IGI Insurance Limited
2 Atlas Insurance Limited
3 Arif Habib Securities Limited
4 Adamjee Insurance Co. Limited
5 New Jubilee Insurance Company Ltd.
Textile Sector
1 Kohinoor Mills Limited
Miscellaneous Sector
1 Rafhan Maize Products Co. Limited
2 Pakistan Tobacco Co. Limited
3 Shakarganj Mills Limited
4 Security Papers Limited
5 KSB Pums Co. Limited
Labels: BCR Winners, ICAP
posted @ 2:30 PM,
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Jobs in Zong
Industry: Telecommunication/ISP
Category: Customer Support
Total Position: 2
Job Type: Full Time ( firstshift )
Job Location: Islamabad
Gender: Doesn't Matter
Minimum Education Bachelor's Degree
Degree Title: Minimum Bachelors, Preferably Masters
Career Level: Experienced (Non-Manager)
Minimum Experience: 2 Years(1-2 Years of experience of Call Centre Operations)
Apply here By: Sep 9, 2009
Labels: Jobs
posted @ 1:11 PM,
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Relief Measures by Government
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The government has incorporated 18 proposals of the Upper House in the Finance Bill 2009-10 to provide further relief to the masses. Salient features are;
- NFC meeting next month
- Ad hoc relief allowance for civil and armed forces employees in BPS 1-16 revised to 20% from 15%
- 20% increase in net pensions
- NAB budget reduced to Rs 183m
- Carbon surcharge stands withdrawn
- Reduction in WHT to 3% from 4% for industrial imports proposed
- Income tax collected on export proceeds is being made final discharge of liability
- Newsprint import exempted from levy of 16 percent GST. Now it will be subjected to customs duty of 5% only
- Gap between delayed payment of tax and refunds reduced to 3% from 12%
- Additional FED @ 20 paisas/SMS withdrawn. Revenue loss to be compensated by increasing FED on cellular services to 19-1/2 from 19%.
- Requirement of NTN or CNIC for sales to unregistered purchasers withdrawn.
Source: Business Recorder dated 23-06-2009
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 11:00 AM,
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Money Market, Forex and General New - 22-06-2009
MONEY MARKET
- Money market opened at the band of 12.75/13.0 percent. Overnight repo rates topped at 12.90 percent but calmed down later on and closed at 12.0 percent. Market is operating smoothly and no such “panic situation” has been witnessed in last few weeks.
- Interest rates falling downward and pressure on KIBOR is evident of the above fact since six month benchmark rate has fallen from13.76 percent on June 1st 2009 to 12.87 percent as on today.
FOREX
- Inter bank opened at 81.25 & 81.30. Even demand and supply of USD restrained the market from any irregular deviation. Rupee weakened to 81.35 but at the end of the day lost only two basis points at bid to close at 81.27 & 81.30.
GENERAL NEWS
- The on going power crisis have forced the government to adopt serious rescue measures to sustain the deteriorating sector.
- In addition to resolve the circular debt issue by issuing TFCs of power companies, government has decided to bail out the energy sector by floating paper guarantees worth Rs24 billion.
- The funds would first be injected into Pepco, followed by other concerns down the supply chain. Pepco will pay to the producers of electricity, who will keep their cuts and then pay money to suppliers of furnace oil.
- At the end of the chain are oil and gas producers The main beneficiary of the exercise would be the state-owned oil marketing company, Pakistan State Oil which had recently sent an SOS to the government that it might default on its LCs due to liquidity problem
Source: NBP Treasury
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 9:47 AM,
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His Last Flight
Monday, June 22, 2009
The world saw the disappearance of an A330 Air France during a trans Atlantic flight between Rio to Paris . Very ironic that a day before I got a mail of the photos taken a a passenger on a flight mins after a mid air collision, and mins before the crash of the said aircraft
Two shots taken inside the plane before it crashed. Unbelievable! Photos taken inside the GOL B 737 aircraft that was involved in a mid air collision and crashed.
A B737 had a mid air collision with the Embraer Legacy while cruising at 35,000 feet over South America . The Embraer Legacy, though seriously damaged with the winglet ripped off, managed to make a landing at a nearby airstrip in the midst of the Amazon jungle. The crew and passengers of the Embraer Legacy had no idea what they had hit. The B737 however crashed, killing all crew and passengers on board.
The two photos attached were apparently taken by one of the passengers in the B737, just after the collision and before the aircraft crashed. The photos were retrieved from the camera's memory stick. You will never get to see photos like this. In the first photo, there is a gaping hole in the fuselage through which you can see the tail plane and vertical fin of the aircraft. In the second photo, one of the passengers is being sucked out of the gaping hole.
These photos were found in a digital Casio Z750, amidst the remains in Serra do Cachimbo. Although the camera was destroyed, the Memory Stick was recovered. Investigating the serial number of the camera, the owner was identified as Paulo G. Muller, an actor of a theatre for children known in the outskirts of Porto Alegre . It can be imagined that he was standing during the impact with the Embraer Legacy and during the turbulence, he managed to take these photos, just seconds after the tail loss the aircraft plunged. So the camera was found near the cockpit. The structural stress probably ripped the engines away, diminishing the falling speed, protecting the electronic equipment but not unfortunately the victims. Paulo Muller leaves behind two daughters, Bruna and Beatriz.
Labels: A330 Air France, Air Crash
posted @ 2:16 PM,
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Some Suggestions For ICAP
Sunday, June 21, 2009
By Mr. Athar Hussain, FCA
- There is a need to sign better MoUs with top accounting bodies of the advanced countries - US, Canada, Australia, Scotland, Canada. Newzealand, Ireland etc.
- SAFA President may kindly be requested to speak much for global worldwide recognition of ICAP accounting qualification. I am not in favour of seeking recognition and/or doing parity of ICAP qualification with Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh etc.. Do u agree?
- The name of ICAP may also be changed as the International Institute of Chartered Accountants in Pakistan or to such better name that reflect 25% of its member working abroad. The name of Pakistan Accountants be changed to "The Global Accountant" or to such other better name as to reflect that it is the magazine of accountants working in Pakistan and abroad.
Labels: ICAP
posted @ 10:12 AM,
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Legal Mortgage Vs. Equitable Mortgage
Saturday, June 20, 2009
From the point of view of transfer of title to the mortgaged property, mortgages are divided into two categories: legal mortgage and equitable mortgage.
Legal Mortgage:
In the case of legal mortgage, the mortgagor transfers legal title to the mortgaged property in favor of the mortgagee by a deed. In legal mortgage transfer of legal title to the mortgage involves expenses in the form of stamp duty and registration charges.
Equitable Mortgage:
On the other hand, in case of an equitable mortgage, the mortgagor transfers the documents of title to the mortgagee for the purpose of creating an equitable interest of the mortgagee in the property.
It means that legal title to the property is not passed on the mortgagee, but the mortgagor undertakes, through a Memorandum of Deposit, to execute a legal mortgage in case he fails to pay the mortgage money. The mortgagee is thus empowered to apply to the court to convert the equitable mortgage into a legal mortgage if the mortgagor fails to pay the mortgage money on the specified date.
It is worth mentioning that a mortgage by deposit of title deeds requires three ingredients: the existence of a debt in the present or future, the deposit of title deeds, and an intention that the title deed should be the security for the debt. The intention is indeed the essence of the transaction. An agreement of sale by itself does not create any interest in the property. Hence such an agreement is not deemed as Document of Title to property. For equitable mortgage, the deeds deposited must relate to the property or as material evidence of title and must have been deposited with the intention of creating a security thereof.
It means that legal title to the property is not passed on the mortgagee, but the mortgagor undertakes, through a Memorandum of Deposit, to execute a legal mortgage in case he fails to pay the mortgage money. The mortgagee is thus empowered to apply to the court to convert the equitable mortgage into a legal mortgage if the mortgagor fails to pay the mortgage money on the specified date.
It is worth mentioning that a mortgage by deposit of title deeds requires three ingredients: the existence of a debt in the present or future, the deposit of title deeds, and an intention that the title deed should be the security for the debt. The intention is indeed the essence of the transaction. An agreement of sale by itself does not create any interest in the property. Hence such an agreement is not deemed as Document of Title to property. For equitable mortgage, the deeds deposited must relate to the property or as material evidence of title and must have been deposited with the intention of creating a security thereof.
Labels: Mortgage
posted @ 11:37 AM,
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Modaraba - Islamic Finance
Friday, June 19, 2009
By Aamer Allauddin (FCCA), Member ACCA Pakistan Members
Introduction
In the organized sector of Pakistan the concept of Modarabas emerged in 1979 as a result of the Government's initiatives towards Islamization of the economy. For this purpose a Council named the Council of Islamic Ideology was set-up. This Council was given the task of devising a blueprint for the Islamization of the economic and financial sectors. The promotion of Modarabas was an important component of this blueprint.
The Modaraba Concept
The term Modaraba is an Arabic term and implies a contract between two parties, whereby one party, the Rab-ul-mal entrusts money to the other party called the Mudarib, to put in his management expertise and utilize it in agreed manner. Profits of the Modaraba are shared in a pre agreed ratio and losses in the proportion of the capital invested. In other words, it is an arrangement between a capital provider and an entrepreneur, whereby the entrepreneur can mobilize the funds of the former for business activity. The entrepreneur provides expertise and management.
For example a bank would make Shariah compliant investments and share the profits with the customer, in effect charging for the time and effort. If no profit is made, the loss is borne by the customer and the bank takes no fee. The bank is compensated for the time value of its money in the form of a floating rate that is pegged to the debtor's profits.
Legal Framework
Modaraba Companies and Modaraba (floatation & control) Ordinance was promulgated in 1980 to provide the statutory framework for organizing business enterprises according to the injunctions of Islam. This piece of legislation refined the Modaraba concept and brought it in conformity with the prevalent corporate structure. The Modaraba Companies and Modaraba Rules, 1981 have been framed under the Ordinance.
Types of Modaraba
The two types of modaraba practiced in Pakistan are:
1. multipurpose modaraba with more than one objective
2. specific purpose modaraba with a particular purpose
Modarabas can further be divided into two categories:
1. Modaraba al Muqayyadah (restricted Modaraba) is where the Rab-ul-mal specifies a particular business or place of business for the Mudarib.
2. Modaraba al Mutlaqah (non-restricted Modaraba) is where the Rab-ul-mal affords full freedom to the Mudarib to undertake any business the latter wishes. However, the Mudarib is not allowed to provide finance to anyone without the consent of the Rab-ul-mal. The Mudarib is authorized to do what is normal in the course of business, but anything beyond the normal routine of the business concerned will require permission from the Rab-ul-mal. The Mudarib is also forbidden to have another partnership or Mudarib, or mix his own investments in the modaraba concerned without having first obtained the Rab-ul-Mal's consent.
A modaraba may be either for a fixed period or for an indefinite period (perpetual modaraba). A modaraba floated for a fixed period or for a specific purpose shall be wound up by the Modaraba Management Company itself on the expiry of the period fixed for the modaraba or the accomplishment of the purpose of the modaraba, as the case may be.
Nature of Business
Majority of the modarabas in Pakistan are in the financial sector, although there is no restriction on the nature of business except that it should be according to the injunctions of Islam. The business / financing activities currently undertaken by modarabas in Pakistan are ijarah/leasing, morabaha, musharika, trading, equity/portfolio financing and manufacturing /distribution.
No modaraba shall be a business which is opposed to the injunctions of Islam and the Registrar shall not permit the floatation of a modaraba unless the Religious Board has certified in writing that the modaraba is not a business opposed to the injunctions of Islam.
Formation & Management
The Mudarib establishes a Modaraba Management Company (MMC) with the approval of the Registrar of Modarabas. No modaraba company shall operate without registration with the Registrar. Modaraba Management Company means a company engaged in the business of floating and managing a Modaraba. Essentially the MMC is the Mudarib and can establish a series of Modarabas for different business ventures with the approval of the Registrar and the Religious Board, bearing in mind that each modaraba is separate and distinct from the other and also from the MMC. The Registrar scrutinizes the application and after he is satisfied, submits it to the Religious Board for approval.
The Religious Board is constituted by the Federal Government and the role of its members shall be to examine and review the prospectus of a modaraba and certify that the business undertaken by the modaraba complies with Shariah principles, before the public offer is made.The Registrar may grant authorization certificate to float a modaraba only after clearance of the proposal by the Religious Board.
Following registration of the MMC, the Mudarib applies to make a public offer of modaraba funds through a prospectus. The Modaraba cannot commence business till the minimum amount stated in the prospectus has been raised, the modaraba certificates thereof have been allotted and a prescribed declaration in this regard signed by Chief Executive has been filed with the Registrar.
The Modaraba is a legal person and can sue and be sued in its own name through the MMC, and the assets and liabilities of each modaraba shall be separate and distinct from those of another modaraba as also from those of the MMC.
Profit and Loss sharing
Both parties i.e. the Mudarib and the Rab-ul-mal agree right at the outset on the proportion of profit that each is entitled to. This is based on mutual consent, as no specific proportion is defined under Shariah law. In the case of absence of a predetermined distribution ratio, the profit shall be shared equally.
Neither the Mudarib nor the Rab-ul-mal is allowed to allocate a specific amount of profit to any party, nor can profit be tied at specific rate to the capital. For example, they cannot agree to the Mudarib getting Rs. 10,000 of the profit or the Rab-ul-mal receiving a 15% share of the capital. However, proportionate sharing of the profit is allowed, such as 10% of profit to Mudarib and 90% of profit to Rab-ul-mal.
The law requires that the MMC subscribes at least 20% of the total amount of subscription in each modaraba floated by it. In order to compensate it, the MMC will get as remuneration, a fixed percentage of the net annual profit of the modaraba which shall not exceed 10% of such net annual profit as shown in the audited profit and loss account of the modaraba. The distribution of profit shall include distribution in cash or issue of bonus certificates out of the capitalized profit or any other security.
Tax Treatment of Modarabas
Under clause 100 of Part I of the Second Schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, the income of non-trading modarabas is exempt from income tax, provided not less than 90% of its profits (as reduced by the amount transferred to a mandatory reserve) are distributed to the certificate holders. For the purpose of determining the distribution of ninety per cent, the profits distributed through bonus certificates to the certificate holders shall not be taken into account.
Future Outlook
Modarabas have a dynamic and progressive role to play in the Islamization of the financial system of the country. There is an appropriate infrastructure in place with nearly 30 years of practical experience. However, despite this, the modaraba sector has not performed as expected and their contribution in the financial sector has been insignificant. The total market capitalization of modarabas is still a tiny fraction of financial sector cap.
Modarabas have not been very successful in mobilization of savings or deposits or diversification of their products to differentiate from other market players such as leasing companies. Today the bulk of their business is primarily leasing which does not provide any market niche or comparative advantage to the sector. However, a point to note is that there have been a few successful models of modarabas engaged in manufacturing.
Modarabas need to innovate, improve their products and operational capabilities and at the same time become more competitive in their cost of funding. Reliance on banks would always place them at a cost disadvantage and there is a need to tap other sources which remain unrealized and do not flow to the banking sector. There are many savers who do not want to use the banking system and are looking for Shariah compliant products. In order for the equity base of Modarabas to expand, the Modaraba Association of Pakistan has been encouraging mergers and consolidations of the existing Modarabas. There is further room to grow and develop the sector given the increasing demand for Islamic products.
Introduction
In the organized sector of Pakistan the concept of Modarabas emerged in 1979 as a result of the Government's initiatives towards Islamization of the economy. For this purpose a Council named the Council of Islamic Ideology was set-up. This Council was given the task of devising a blueprint for the Islamization of the economic and financial sectors. The promotion of Modarabas was an important component of this blueprint.
The Modaraba Concept
The term Modaraba is an Arabic term and implies a contract between two parties, whereby one party, the Rab-ul-mal entrusts money to the other party called the Mudarib, to put in his management expertise and utilize it in agreed manner. Profits of the Modaraba are shared in a pre agreed ratio and losses in the proportion of the capital invested. In other words, it is an arrangement between a capital provider and an entrepreneur, whereby the entrepreneur can mobilize the funds of the former for business activity. The entrepreneur provides expertise and management.
For example a bank would make Shariah compliant investments and share the profits with the customer, in effect charging for the time and effort. If no profit is made, the loss is borne by the customer and the bank takes no fee. The bank is compensated for the time value of its money in the form of a floating rate that is pegged to the debtor's profits.
Legal Framework
Modaraba Companies and Modaraba (floatation & control) Ordinance was promulgated in 1980 to provide the statutory framework for organizing business enterprises according to the injunctions of Islam. This piece of legislation refined the Modaraba concept and brought it in conformity with the prevalent corporate structure. The Modaraba Companies and Modaraba Rules, 1981 have been framed under the Ordinance.
Types of Modaraba
The two types of modaraba practiced in Pakistan are:
1. multipurpose modaraba with more than one objective
2. specific purpose modaraba with a particular purpose
Modarabas can further be divided into two categories:
1. Modaraba al Muqayyadah (restricted Modaraba) is where the Rab-ul-mal specifies a particular business or place of business for the Mudarib.
2. Modaraba al Mutlaqah (non-restricted Modaraba) is where the Rab-ul-mal affords full freedom to the Mudarib to undertake any business the latter wishes. However, the Mudarib is not allowed to provide finance to anyone without the consent of the Rab-ul-mal. The Mudarib is authorized to do what is normal in the course of business, but anything beyond the normal routine of the business concerned will require permission from the Rab-ul-mal. The Mudarib is also forbidden to have another partnership or Mudarib, or mix his own investments in the modaraba concerned without having first obtained the Rab-ul-Mal's consent.
A modaraba may be either for a fixed period or for an indefinite period (perpetual modaraba). A modaraba floated for a fixed period or for a specific purpose shall be wound up by the Modaraba Management Company itself on the expiry of the period fixed for the modaraba or the accomplishment of the purpose of the modaraba, as the case may be.
Nature of Business
Majority of the modarabas in Pakistan are in the financial sector, although there is no restriction on the nature of business except that it should be according to the injunctions of Islam. The business / financing activities currently undertaken by modarabas in Pakistan are ijarah/leasing, morabaha, musharika, trading, equity/portfolio financing and manufacturing /distribution.
No modaraba shall be a business which is opposed to the injunctions of Islam and the Registrar shall not permit the floatation of a modaraba unless the Religious Board has certified in writing that the modaraba is not a business opposed to the injunctions of Islam.
Formation & Management
The Mudarib establishes a Modaraba Management Company (MMC) with the approval of the Registrar of Modarabas. No modaraba company shall operate without registration with the Registrar. Modaraba Management Company means a company engaged in the business of floating and managing a Modaraba. Essentially the MMC is the Mudarib and can establish a series of Modarabas for different business ventures with the approval of the Registrar and the Religious Board, bearing in mind that each modaraba is separate and distinct from the other and also from the MMC. The Registrar scrutinizes the application and after he is satisfied, submits it to the Religious Board for approval.
The Religious Board is constituted by the Federal Government and the role of its members shall be to examine and review the prospectus of a modaraba and certify that the business undertaken by the modaraba complies with Shariah principles, before the public offer is made.The Registrar may grant authorization certificate to float a modaraba only after clearance of the proposal by the Religious Board.
Following registration of the MMC, the Mudarib applies to make a public offer of modaraba funds through a prospectus. The Modaraba cannot commence business till the minimum amount stated in the prospectus has been raised, the modaraba certificates thereof have been allotted and a prescribed declaration in this regard signed by Chief Executive has been filed with the Registrar.
The Modaraba is a legal person and can sue and be sued in its own name through the MMC, and the assets and liabilities of each modaraba shall be separate and distinct from those of another modaraba as also from those of the MMC.
Profit and Loss sharing
Both parties i.e. the Mudarib and the Rab-ul-mal agree right at the outset on the proportion of profit that each is entitled to. This is based on mutual consent, as no specific proportion is defined under Shariah law. In the case of absence of a predetermined distribution ratio, the profit shall be shared equally.
Neither the Mudarib nor the Rab-ul-mal is allowed to allocate a specific amount of profit to any party, nor can profit be tied at specific rate to the capital. For example, they cannot agree to the Mudarib getting Rs. 10,000 of the profit or the Rab-ul-mal receiving a 15% share of the capital. However, proportionate sharing of the profit is allowed, such as 10% of profit to Mudarib and 90% of profit to Rab-ul-mal.
The law requires that the MMC subscribes at least 20% of the total amount of subscription in each modaraba floated by it. In order to compensate it, the MMC will get as remuneration, a fixed percentage of the net annual profit of the modaraba which shall not exceed 10% of such net annual profit as shown in the audited profit and loss account of the modaraba. The distribution of profit shall include distribution in cash or issue of bonus certificates out of the capitalized profit or any other security.
Tax Treatment of Modarabas
Under clause 100 of Part I of the Second Schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, the income of non-trading modarabas is exempt from income tax, provided not less than 90% of its profits (as reduced by the amount transferred to a mandatory reserve) are distributed to the certificate holders. For the purpose of determining the distribution of ninety per cent, the profits distributed through bonus certificates to the certificate holders shall not be taken into account.
Future Outlook
Modarabas have a dynamic and progressive role to play in the Islamization of the financial system of the country. There is an appropriate infrastructure in place with nearly 30 years of practical experience. However, despite this, the modaraba sector has not performed as expected and their contribution in the financial sector has been insignificant. The total market capitalization of modarabas is still a tiny fraction of financial sector cap.
Modarabas have not been very successful in mobilization of savings or deposits or diversification of their products to differentiate from other market players such as leasing companies. Today the bulk of their business is primarily leasing which does not provide any market niche or comparative advantage to the sector. However, a point to note is that there have been a few successful models of modarabas engaged in manufacturing.
Modarabas need to innovate, improve their products and operational capabilities and at the same time become more competitive in their cost of funding. Reliance on banks would always place them at a cost disadvantage and there is a need to tap other sources which remain unrealized and do not flow to the banking sector. There are many savers who do not want to use the banking system and are looking for Shariah compliant products. In order for the equity base of Modarabas to expand, the Modaraba Association of Pakistan has been encouraging mergers and consolidations of the existing Modarabas. There is further room to grow and develop the sector given the increasing demand for Islamic products.
Labels: Islamic Finance, Modaraba, SBP
posted @ 5:41 PM,
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Money Market, Forex and General News - 17-06-2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
MONEY MARKET
State Bank conducted T-Bills auction today in which cut off rates are expected to come down. Money market stayed at top level throughout the day as market opened at 13.90% and in the end market went for discounting at 14.0%
FOREX
The USD / PKR opened at levels of 81.05 & 81.10, went as high as 81.13 and closed at 80.95 & 80.98.Moreover price of furnace oil has been raised by Rs 4000 per ton taking prices to Rs 40,000 per ton in the local market.
GENERAL NEWS
- Net foreign investment in Pakistan fell 47.5 percent to $2.22 billion in the first 11 months of the 2008/09 fiscal year compared with $4.23 billion in the same period last year.
- Foreign private investment fell 34.2 percent to $2.76 billion in the July to May period, compared with $4.20 billion in the corresponding period last year. Out of total foreign investment, foreign direct investment was down 19.8 percent to $3.32 billion, compared with $4.15 billion the previous year.
- There was an outflow of $1.1 billion from July to May this year compared with an inflow of $87.2 million in the same period the previous year.There have been outflows from the stock market because of political uncertainty and economic and security worries.
- Foreign investors also lost confidence and sold shares when stock market authorities placed a floor under the main index in August following sharp falls.
- Pakistan once again posted a Current Account surplus of $406 million in May comparing with $538 million deficit in n April .Current Account deficit for July-May 2009 fell down by 34 percent to $8.2 billion as compare to last year’s $12.485 billion, supported by strong trade figures and healthy inward remittances.
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 10:31 AM,
,
Future Outlook of Pakistan Economy
Monday, June 15, 2009
- The trade deficit is rising and has surpassed $14 billion mark and country is most likely to miss export target of $22 billion in fiscal year 2009 owing to slow growth in exports amid global recession. Though, due to falling Imports, trade deficit might stay below last year’s $20 billion if current trend continues.
- First ten months of current fiscal year have been challenging for the economy due to volatility in domestic and international market.
- Pakistan still needs to build its foreign exchange reserves internally to stabilize rupee against foreign currencies. The rising foreign debt is also a matter of concern as debt servicing puts additional pressure on the local currency.
- Interest rates in Pakistan have been kept high to contain inflation and to attract foreign investment but both objectives haven’t been achieved so far and in turn they have raised the cost of production for industries.
- SBP responded the matter by slashing Discount Rate by 100 basis points in April but still there is a strong anticipation about further rate cut in up coming monetary policy statement from Central Bank by the end of mid July.
- We expect a rate cut of 200 to 300 basis points in July’s MPS. Although given the fact that POL prices may have hit the bottom and may rebound in months to come.
- It would be difficult to keep CPI down and maintain the interest rates at relatively low rates.
- The key indicator would be Net Foreign Assets (NFA). If NFA rises due to such inflows that can help the NDA than interest rate would be maintained at relatively lower levels otherwise rates may have to be jacked up again.
- On the FX front we maintain our view that the parity would depreciate at interest rate differential although the timing is difficult to predict.
Source: National Bank of Pakistan, Treasury
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy, Treasury
posted @ 11:59 PM,
,
Jobs in PSO
One position in Legal Department:
Qualification: LL B degree
Experience: 4-6 years
Age limit: 35 years
Position based in Karachi
Associate Engineer:
Qualification: Diploma in associate engineering
Experience: 2-5 years
Age limit: 28 years
Visit Career Section and apply by June 22, 2009
Labels: Jobs
posted @ 3:01 PM,
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Money Market, Forex and General New - 12-06-2009
MONEY MARKET
Pakistan's central bank sold 8.00 billion rupees of Treasury bills in one-day repo contracts at 7.74 percent to mop up liquidity from the money market.
FOREX
The USD / PKR opened at levels of 80.80 & 80.85 and went as high
as 81.05 and closed at 81.00 & 81.05.
as 81.05 and closed at 81.00 & 81.05.
GENERAL NEWS
Central bank opted for higher policy rate and first time fiscal stance backed SBP’s tightening bias. This coupled with massive exchange rate adjustments, has held-up remittances and to some extent falling exports. However, the initial tightening discouraged money creation and prompted massive asset price deflation, as cash remained the preferred asset class. This sparked higher unemployment expectation countrywide & deteriorated country’s domestic consumption. The massive fall in domestic demand has resulted into industrial output contraction and hence impacted tax revenue collection. The tax revenue drag has reduced GoP’s fiscal space and compelled GoP to cut development expenditures. Absence of foreign aid, investments and grants has shifted the burden of financing entirely on domestic sources, hence kept benchmark Karachi Inter-Bank Offer Rate (KIBOR) to higher levels in most part of FY09. This resulted into massive decline in private sector credit.
The local banking sector's deposit mobilization in FY09 has been muted thus far with deposits up just 5%YoY by May'09, well below peak growth levels of 20%+ (2006-2007). That said, deposit
mobilization has picked up of late, coinciding with the decrease in NSS product rates - 80% of increase in deposits in 11MFY09 has occurred over Apr-May'09. Systemic cannibalization of bank deposits by NSS products should decline going forward. This is based on expected further rationalization of the discount rate in the monetary policy leading to reduced NSS product rates.
mobilization has picked up of late, coinciding with the decrease in NSS product rates - 80% of increase in deposits in 11MFY09 has occurred over Apr-May'09. Systemic cannibalization of bank deposits by NSS products should decline going forward. This is based on expected further rationalization of the discount rate in the monetary policy leading to reduced NSS product rates.
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 2:33 PM,
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Salient Features For The Budget 2009-10
INCOME TAX
RELIEF MEASURES:
• The basic limit of exemption from income tax in respect of salaried persons is proposed to be increased from Rs.1,80,000 to Rs.2,00,000. In the case of women salaries taxpayers, this limit is proposed to be increased from Rs.2,40,000 to Rs.2,60,000.
• Presently senior citizens are allowed 50% relief in tax liability provided the taxable income, in a tax year, does not exceed Rs.5,00,000/-. In view of inflationary trend, it is proposed to enhance limit of taxable income to Rs.7,50,000.
• In view of the less margin of profit available to cigarettes and pharmaceutical products distributors, withholding tax rate in respect of such taxpayer is being reduced from 3.5% to 1%.
• At present, the taxpayers are entitled to compensation @ 6% for the late payment of refunds. Considering the prevailing interest rates on bank loans the rate of compensation is being increased to 10% per annum.
• Presently, receipts form accumulated balance of voluntary pension scheme is exempt up to 25% of the available balance. In order to promote the voluntary pension schemes and allow relief to pensioner class the said limit is proposed to be enhanced to 50%.
• Under the existing provisions of the Income Tax Ordinance, a person is entitled to tax credit on interest payment of housing loans up to 45% of the taxable income or Rs.5,00,000/- whichever is low. The said limits are proposed to be enhanced to 50% and Rs.7,00,000/- respectively.
• Presently, tax collected on monthly electricity bills in respect of non-corporate Commercial and Industrial consumers is treated as final tax. An amendment has been proposed in section 235 of the Income Tax Ordinance by virtue of which the tax deducted on the monthly electricity bills exceeding Rs.30,000/- will be adjustable which consequently could be refunded.
• Last year amendment was made in the seventh schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance whereby the banks were deprived of the facility to claim deduction on account of provisions of non-performing loans. This facility is being restored. However, the same is proposed to be restricted to 1% of the total advances made by the bank in a tax year.
RELIEF MEASURES:
• The basic limit of exemption from income tax in respect of salaried persons is proposed to be increased from Rs.1,80,000 to Rs.2,00,000. In the case of women salaries taxpayers, this limit is proposed to be increased from Rs.2,40,000 to Rs.2,60,000.
• Presently senior citizens are allowed 50% relief in tax liability provided the taxable income, in a tax year, does not exceed Rs.5,00,000/-. In view of inflationary trend, it is proposed to enhance limit of taxable income to Rs.7,50,000.
• In view of the less margin of profit available to cigarettes and pharmaceutical products distributors, withholding tax rate in respect of such taxpayer is being reduced from 3.5% to 1%.
• At present, the taxpayers are entitled to compensation @ 6% for the late payment of refunds. Considering the prevailing interest rates on bank loans the rate of compensation is being increased to 10% per annum.
• Presently, receipts form accumulated balance of voluntary pension scheme is exempt up to 25% of the available balance. In order to promote the voluntary pension schemes and allow relief to pensioner class the said limit is proposed to be enhanced to 50%.
• Under the existing provisions of the Income Tax Ordinance, a person is entitled to tax credit on interest payment of housing loans up to 45% of the taxable income or Rs.5,00,000/- whichever is low. The said limits are proposed to be enhanced to 50% and Rs.7,00,000/- respectively.
• Presently, tax collected on monthly electricity bills in respect of non-corporate Commercial and Industrial consumers is treated as final tax. An amendment has been proposed in section 235 of the Income Tax Ordinance by virtue of which the tax deducted on the monthly electricity bills exceeding Rs.30,000/- will be adjustable which consequently could be refunded.
• Last year amendment was made in the seventh schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance whereby the banks were deprived of the facility to claim deduction on account of provisions of non-performing loans. This facility is being restored. However, the same is proposed to be restricted to 1% of the total advances made by the bank in a tax year.
Revenue Measures
• Before amendment made through Finance Act, 2008 withholding tax on imports was collected @ 5% which was reduced to 2%. The benefit of reduction in tax rate could not be passed on to end users therefore, the rate is proposed to be enhanced to 4% across the board.
• Presently, advance tax is payable in four quarterly installments on the basis of last assessed income. It is proposed that far working out the advance tax liability the sales should also be taken in to account.
• Last year the provision regarding payment of minimum tax on declared turnover by the companies showing losses for one or other reasons was deleted mainly for the reason that the revenue collection was insignificant. Subsequently, it was found that actual collection from this source was much higher, however due to misclassification, the same could not be reported properly. In view of huge revenue loss the provision is being revived.
• Presently, the indenting commission is being taxed @ 1% of the gross receipts whereas the general rate for commission and brokerage is 10%. In view of the gross disparity in the rate it is proposed to be enhanced to 5%.
• The scope of advance tax collection on purchase of new locally manufactured motorcar/jeep is proposed to be extended to all types of motor vehicles.
• In order to raise funds for the rehabilitation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Swat, Dir & Bunir it is proposed to charge 5% tax on tax payable by individuals and AOPs whose taxable income exceeds one million rupees.
• In order to support IDPs in their habilitation a new tax is being proposed to be charged on bonus income of corporate executives @ 30% of the bonus. This is a one time levy and payable for tax year 2009 only.
• At present, additional tax is chargeable @ 12% per annum on late payment of tax. The rate being low as compared to prevailing interest rate on bank loan gives temptation for delaying payment of tax. It is therefore, proposed to increase the rate of additional tax to 15% per annum.
• At present, depreciation on passenger transport vehicles is allowed on total cost which has encouraged the purchase of luxury vehicles mainly used for personal purposes at the cost of revenue. It is, therefore, proposed to restrict the value of such vehicle to Rs.1.5 million for the purpose of depreciation.
• Presently the large trading houses are exempt from payment of withholding tax on imports as well as sales of goods. The facility of exemption of tax at import stage is being withdrawn. However, the tax so collected will be adjustable against final tax liability.
• The exemption regime provided under the second schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance has been reviewed to delete the redundant and unjustified exemptions as per detail given in the Finance Bill.
• It has been noticed that the facility of tax exemption available to educational institution is being grossly misused by private universities and medical colleges etc. It is therefore proposed that such facility would only be available to those institutions which have been approved by the concerned Director General of LTU/RTO for this purpose.
o At present no tax is collected on export of goods made without form “E” because in this case export proceeds are received in cash. An amendment has been proposed in section 154 whereby the Collectorate of Customs shall collect tax @ 1% at the time of clearing goods for export made without form “E”. Presently such exports are mainly allowed to Afghanistan through land routs.
• Presently, advance tax is payable in four quarterly installments on the basis of last assessed income. It is proposed that far working out the advance tax liability the sales should also be taken in to account.
• Last year the provision regarding payment of minimum tax on declared turnover by the companies showing losses for one or other reasons was deleted mainly for the reason that the revenue collection was insignificant. Subsequently, it was found that actual collection from this source was much higher, however due to misclassification, the same could not be reported properly. In view of huge revenue loss the provision is being revived.
• Presently, the indenting commission is being taxed @ 1% of the gross receipts whereas the general rate for commission and brokerage is 10%. In view of the gross disparity in the rate it is proposed to be enhanced to 5%.
• The scope of advance tax collection on purchase of new locally manufactured motorcar/jeep is proposed to be extended to all types of motor vehicles.
• In order to raise funds for the rehabilitation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Swat, Dir & Bunir it is proposed to charge 5% tax on tax payable by individuals and AOPs whose taxable income exceeds one million rupees.
• In order to support IDPs in their habilitation a new tax is being proposed to be charged on bonus income of corporate executives @ 30% of the bonus. This is a one time levy and payable for tax year 2009 only.
• At present, additional tax is chargeable @ 12% per annum on late payment of tax. The rate being low as compared to prevailing interest rate on bank loan gives temptation for delaying payment of tax. It is therefore, proposed to increase the rate of additional tax to 15% per annum.
• At present, depreciation on passenger transport vehicles is allowed on total cost which has encouraged the purchase of luxury vehicles mainly used for personal purposes at the cost of revenue. It is, therefore, proposed to restrict the value of such vehicle to Rs.1.5 million for the purpose of depreciation.
• Presently the large trading houses are exempt from payment of withholding tax on imports as well as sales of goods. The facility of exemption of tax at import stage is being withdrawn. However, the tax so collected will be adjustable against final tax liability.
• The exemption regime provided under the second schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance has been reviewed to delete the redundant and unjustified exemptions as per detail given in the Finance Bill.
• It has been noticed that the facility of tax exemption available to educational institution is being grossly misused by private universities and medical colleges etc. It is therefore proposed that such facility would only be available to those institutions which have been approved by the concerned Director General of LTU/RTO for this purpose.
o At present no tax is collected on export of goods made without form “E” because in this case export proceeds are received in cash. An amendment has been proposed in section 154 whereby the Collectorate of Customs shall collect tax @ 1% at the time of clearing goods for export made without form “E”. Presently such exports are mainly allowed to Afghanistan through land routs.
TECHNICAL MEASURES
• In order to avoid false claims of tax payments and make possible speedy verification of tax paid for issuance of refund, it is proposed that the taxpayer would be required to furnish copies of challan or other equivalent document in support of claims of tax payments.
• At present, the taxpayers are allowed to file revised return any time within five years of the filing of original return. It is proposed to disallow filing of revised return in cases, where the department has initiated proceedings for amendment of assessment order.
• An amendment has been proposed in section 124 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 by virtue of which the taxpayers would be provided the facility of filing appeal against the reassessment order.
• In order to safeguard the interest of revenue it has been proposed that in certain cases where departmental appeals are pending in courts the Commissioner will be empowered to withhold refunds.
• In the cases of taxpayers having special tax year calculation of additional tax for delayed payment of advance tax will be made from the first day of the last quarter of the relevant tax year instead of 1st April as allowed in case of taxpayers having normal tax year.
• Presently the taxpayers are allowed to rework out the cost of an asset, purchased against a loan in foreign currency, for the purpose of depreciation. An amendment has been proposed to restrict the revaluation of the asset only in the year of occurrence of exchange fluctuation and not in previous years.
• An amendment has been proposed in section 115 of the Income Tax Ordinance to provide for filing of revised statement by the tax payer on account of any omission or wrong statement of particulars of income.
• The motor vehicle registration authorities are being empowered to collect advance tax payable on purchase of a new locally manufactured motor vehicle at the time of registration of such vehicle.
• It is being made mandatory that the taxpayers who are required to file wealth statement shall also file wealth statement reconciliation giving necessary details and documents in support thereof.
• An amendment has been proposed in section 177 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 to empower the Commissioner of Income Tax to delegate powers to a chartered accountant firm for conducting audit of a taxpayer.
• Harmonization of different tax laws namely Income Tax, Sales Tax, Customs and Federal Excise Duty is one of the objectives of the ongoing Tax Reforms. In this connection necessary amendments are being made in the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 to make it harmonized with other tax laws. These amendments mainly relate to appellate proceedings, appeal fees, fine, penalties and appointment of Special Judges.
• At present, the taxpayers are allowed to file revised return any time within five years of the filing of original return. It is proposed to disallow filing of revised return in cases, where the department has initiated proceedings for amendment of assessment order.
• An amendment has been proposed in section 124 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 by virtue of which the taxpayers would be provided the facility of filing appeal against the reassessment order.
• In order to safeguard the interest of revenue it has been proposed that in certain cases where departmental appeals are pending in courts the Commissioner will be empowered to withhold refunds.
• In the cases of taxpayers having special tax year calculation of additional tax for delayed payment of advance tax will be made from the first day of the last quarter of the relevant tax year instead of 1st April as allowed in case of taxpayers having normal tax year.
• Presently the taxpayers are allowed to rework out the cost of an asset, purchased against a loan in foreign currency, for the purpose of depreciation. An amendment has been proposed to restrict the revaluation of the asset only in the year of occurrence of exchange fluctuation and not in previous years.
• An amendment has been proposed in section 115 of the Income Tax Ordinance to provide for filing of revised statement by the tax payer on account of any omission or wrong statement of particulars of income.
• The motor vehicle registration authorities are being empowered to collect advance tax payable on purchase of a new locally manufactured motor vehicle at the time of registration of such vehicle.
• It is being made mandatory that the taxpayers who are required to file wealth statement shall also file wealth statement reconciliation giving necessary details and documents in support thereof.
• An amendment has been proposed in section 177 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 to empower the Commissioner of Income Tax to delegate powers to a chartered accountant firm for conducting audit of a taxpayer.
• Harmonization of different tax laws namely Income Tax, Sales Tax, Customs and Federal Excise Duty is one of the objectives of the ongoing Tax Reforms. In this connection necessary amendments are being made in the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 to make it harmonized with other tax laws. These amendments mainly relate to appellate proceedings, appeal fees, fine, penalties and appointment of Special Judges.
MEASURES FOR BROADENING OF TAX BASE
• In order to broaden the tax base and promote documentation of economy, importers, exporters and service providers are being required to file normal return of income instead of simple statement. Further tax deducted/collected from such taxpayers would be treated as minimum instead of final tax.
• It is proposed that obtaining of NTN may be made mandatory for purchase of property, obtaining commercial and industrial gas/electricity connection and opening of a bank account. All NTN holders are also proposed to file returns necessarily.
• In order to ensure filing of income tax returns by all persons having reasonable resources and income, it is proposed that any person owning immovable property with a land area having 500 sq. yards, flat having covered area 2000 sq.ft or owns a motor vehicle having engine capacity of 1000CC or more shall file return of income.
• Taxation Officers are being empowered to pass best judgment assessment orders in the cases of the taxpayers who failed to furnish statutory statement as required under section 115 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
• To accelerate the pace of documentation of the economy and broadening of tax base the manufacturer are being incentivized by allowing tax credit at 2.5% of
the tax payable if they are able to make at least 90% of their sales to sales tax registered persons.
• The real estate sector is known to be the most under taxed sector of the economy which usually attracts black economy. In order to curb the speculative tendency and discourage non productive investment the rate of CVT on transfer of immoveable property is being enhanced from 2% to 4%.
• It is proposed that obtaining of NTN may be made mandatory for purchase of property, obtaining commercial and industrial gas/electricity connection and opening of a bank account. All NTN holders are also proposed to file returns necessarily.
• In order to ensure filing of income tax returns by all persons having reasonable resources and income, it is proposed that any person owning immovable property with a land area having 500 sq. yards, flat having covered area 2000 sq.ft or owns a motor vehicle having engine capacity of 1000CC or more shall file return of income.
• Taxation Officers are being empowered to pass best judgment assessment orders in the cases of the taxpayers who failed to furnish statutory statement as required under section 115 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
• To accelerate the pace of documentation of the economy and broadening of tax base the manufacturer are being incentivized by allowing tax credit at 2.5% of
the tax payable if they are able to make at least 90% of their sales to sales tax registered persons.
• The real estate sector is known to be the most under taxed sector of the economy which usually attracts black economy. In order to curb the speculative tendency and discourage non productive investment the rate of CVT on transfer of immoveable property is being enhanced from 2% to 4%.
Labels: Pakistan Budget, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 11:50 AM,
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Money Market, Forex and General News - 11-06-2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
MONEY MARKET
Pakistan's central bank sold 6.00 billion rupees of Treasury bills in two-day repo contracts at 9.60 percent to mop up liquidity from the money market.
FOREX
- The inter-bank market opened at 81.00 & 81.05.Market topped at 81.02 but healthy supplies of US dollars in the market pulled the rates down to 80.80.Rupee strengthened by gaining twenty basis points each side to close at 80.80 & 80.85.
- The Foreign Exchange Exposure Limit (FEEL) of authorize dealers has been enhanced to 20.0% of Paid up capital with a cap of Rs 2 billion from 15% and a cap of Rs 1.5 billion previously
GENERAL NEWS
- According to the latest data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, CPI inflation has clocked in at 14.4%YoY in May’09, marginally lower than our forecast of 14.6%-14.8%YoY. This represents a substantial decline of 2.8% as compared to 17.2%YoY CPI inflation in Apr’09.
- What is very significant is that “Core” inflation has showed its steepest decline since Feb’06, where it has declined by 1.1% in May’09 to reach 16.6%YoY as compared to 17.7%YoY in Apr’09.
- The substantial drop in Core inflation in May’09 represents the initiation of a process which should continue at least over the next 4-6 months, if the recent pickup in international commodity prices does not sustain.
- The SECP backed Consultative Group on Capital Markets has unveiled the newly proposed ‘Margin Financing (MF)’ leverage product for the stock market.
- The proposed MF model will provide the following types of ready market financing:
1. Third party funding for both proprietary and client purchases.
2. Brokers using own funds to finance ready market purchases of clients
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 9:28 AM,
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Economy of Pakistan
Thursday, June 11, 2009
In view of the coming budget, here are the some indicators from the last fiscal year:
Economic Survey
Labels: Pakistan Budget, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 9:02 PM,
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Job in Buksh Group
Industry: Retail
Category: Financial Services
Total Position: 1
Job Type: Permanent ( firstshift )
Job Location: Lahore
Gender: Male
Age: 19 - 27 Years
Minimum Education Certificate
Degree Title: Chatrtered Accountant (Inter)
Career Level: Entry Level
Required Experience: 1 Year - 2 Years
Apply here By: Sep 11, 2009
Posted: Jun 11, 2009
Labels: Jobs
posted @ 4:49 PM,
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Foreign Exchange Exposure Limit
State Bank of Pakistan has issued a circlular regards Foreign Exchange Exposure Limit mentioning following:
- Aggregate Foreign Exchange Exposure Limit (FEEL) of Authorised Dealers (ADs) was set as 15% of their Paid-up Capital with a maximum cap of PKR 1,500 million.
- To adjust the FEEL of ADs according to the changed market conditions & trade volumes, it has been decided that, effective from June 15th, 2009, the FEEL of ADs would now be calculated as 20% of their Paid-up Capital (free of losses) with a maximum cap of PKR 2,000 million.
- However, SBP reserves the right to assign the FEEL of any AD below 20% of Paid-up capital (free of losses), based on the trends observed in the utilization of FEEL.
- The FEEL of ADs would now be reviewed annually on the basis of annual audited accounts each year and any changes will be advised to each AD individually through separate letter.
- In the case of banks incorporated in Pakistan the limit would cover all the branches including overseas branches if any, as already advised vide FSCD Circular No 06 referenced above.
- The assigned FEEL should be meticulously adhered to and any breaches would attract penal actions,as deemed appropriate.
posted @ 4:20 PM,
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ICAP Post Budget Seminar
One of my friends has been attending the Post Budget seminar since many years as conducted by ICAP.It has been observed that same 3 persons Mr. Naqvi, Mr. Sidat and Mr. Shabbar Zaidi are the main speakers for many years which shows their "Power" to remain in the que to speak. Further more in the forthcoming post budget seminar still they are the key persons to address.
Why the ICAP do not provide opportunity to other renowned and competent persons to become the key note speaker and indeed will be new expierance to the audiance to get the comments on budget in different dimensions and aspects.
Labels: ICAP, Pakistan Budget
posted @ 2:50 PM,
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Foreign Exchange Risk
Query from Emad Khan
We are importing goods from China. My understanding is that at the moment there is no hedging method available in Pakistan. I heard that we can hedge the risk by entering into forward cover in Dubai through our branch office. We will make payment directly to China in our supplier bank account but relevant hedging instrument covers our risk. The branch will transfer the loss or gain on close out to HO in Pakistan.
Is it true? If yes then whats the methodology of the above and how can we do it.
Comment:
The only source of hedging such exchange rate risk is forward booking at some premium. Right now in Pakistan, State Bank of Pakistan has restricted the forward booking against imports as most of the companies are intentially used this facility fruadulently.
However, If a company has presence in middle east or some other foreign country then It can be entered in forward booking transaction through any bank in Pakistan which has presence in middle east or outside the country through showing Letter of Credit of imported supplies.
Labels: Treasury
posted @ 10:37 AM,
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Economic Review
- Despite of strong commitments and promises by the government, Pakistan almost missed all its major targets for Fiscal year 2008- 09.Local economy grew by just 2.0 percent as against target of 4.5 percent and last year’s 4.1 percent owing to lack luster performance from industry and services.
- Agriculture sector showed signs of resilience and grew by 4.7 percent, surpassing target of 3.5 percent. Manufacturing sector contacted by 3.3 percent while Large Scale Manufacturing contracted more severely by 7.7 percent as compare to targeted 5.5 percent. Main reasons for the serious contraction in Manufacturing were power shortages, weak and depreciating rupee against USD, poor law and order, global recession and high inflation which restrained consumers from making expenditures in durable goods.
- Services grew by just 3.6 percent against targeted 6.1 percent. Finance and insurance sector struggled and showed a negative growth of 1.2 percent.
- Investment fell sharply in 2008-09 and fell to 19.7 percent of GDP as compare to last year’s 22.5 -Inflation stood at 22.3 percent during July-April 2008-09 as compare to last year’s 10.3 percent. Food inflation remained much high at 26.6 percent along with non food inflation which stayed at 19.0 percent. Keeping in mind the current scenario the full year inflation is expected to be around 21.0percent.
- Although FBR managed to collect Rs 898.6 billion in Jul-April 2008-09 but the tax collection target of 10 percent of GDP would likely to be missed easily.
- Foreign investments declined by 42.7 percent to $2.2 billion as compare to last year’s $3.9 billion. the major decline was seen in portfolio investment where almost investments of almost a billion dollar got drained from the system.
Source: NBP Treasury
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 10:05 AM,
,
More Dollars From World Bank
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The government and World Bank here on Tuesday signed three agreements of US$ 900 million for financing development projects in different sectors. Secretary Economic Affair Division, Farrakh Qayyum and WB Acting Country Director, Saeed Habsi inked the MoU on behalf of their respective sides.
Secretary Education Department Punjab, Nadeem Ashraf, Secretary Education Department Sindh, Rizwan Memon and Kamal Hayat, Chief Executive Officer Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund signed the Project Agreements on behalf of their respective organizations.
According to the agreement, the WB would provide US$ 350 million for Punjab Education Sector Project, while about US$ 300 million for Sindh Education Sector Project and US$ 250 million for Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund.
The overall objectives of these projects are to help the government enhance efficiency and productivity of sectors like education and Poverty Alleviation.
The terms and conditions for the education sector credits will remain as per the World Bank standard, maturity period of the credit is 35 years having a grace period of 10 years.
It said that the government has to pay service charges at the rate of 0.75 percent and commitment charges at the rate of 0.5 percent per annum.
The objectives of the project are to improve access and equity and the quality and relevance of education in the province of Punjab.
The Project consists of the financing of the Punjab Education Sector Reform Program to enhance education sector expenditure and improved fiduciary environment.
It also aims at improving quality of education, improve education access and equity, school management and governance and monitoring.
US $ 10 million would be spent on technical assistance and building of institutional capacity of Punjab’s education sector departments and agencies.
US$ 300 million would be spent on Sindh Education Sector Project with an objective to improve access and equity and the quality and relevance of education in the Province of Sindh.
The Project consists of the financing of SERP, provide financial support to Sindh in its implementation of the SERP through its programe to improve the fiscal sustainability and effectiveness of public expenditures.
Program would help improve education sector management and strengthen the functioning, capacity and accountability of provincial, district and school level management for education service delivery.
It would also help to improve access to quality schooling in rural areas for girls and to improve the quality of teaching and student learning.
It will also provide technical assistance to develop or refine strategies to enhance the performance of incentive programs for public schools to improve transparency and build Sindh’s Education sector capacity for the development of specialized skills needed for competency-based testing of teachers.
The bank would also provide US$ 250 million for Third Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Project.
The objective of the project is to empower the targeted rural poor with increased incomes, improved productive capacity and access to services to achieve sustainable livelihoods.
The Project consists of social mobilization and institution building, livelihood enhancement and protection, micro-credit access, basic services and infrastructure and project implementation support.
Source: Associated Press of Pakistan
Secretary Education Department Punjab, Nadeem Ashraf, Secretary Education Department Sindh, Rizwan Memon and Kamal Hayat, Chief Executive Officer Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund signed the Project Agreements on behalf of their respective organizations.
According to the agreement, the WB would provide US$ 350 million for Punjab Education Sector Project, while about US$ 300 million for Sindh Education Sector Project and US$ 250 million for Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund.
The overall objectives of these projects are to help the government enhance efficiency and productivity of sectors like education and Poverty Alleviation.
The terms and conditions for the education sector credits will remain as per the World Bank standard, maturity period of the credit is 35 years having a grace period of 10 years.
It said that the government has to pay service charges at the rate of 0.75 percent and commitment charges at the rate of 0.5 percent per annum.
The objectives of the project are to improve access and equity and the quality and relevance of education in the province of Punjab.
The Project consists of the financing of the Punjab Education Sector Reform Program to enhance education sector expenditure and improved fiduciary environment.
It also aims at improving quality of education, improve education access and equity, school management and governance and monitoring.
US $ 10 million would be spent on technical assistance and building of institutional capacity of Punjab’s education sector departments and agencies.
US$ 300 million would be spent on Sindh Education Sector Project with an objective to improve access and equity and the quality and relevance of education in the Province of Sindh.
The Project consists of the financing of SERP, provide financial support to Sindh in its implementation of the SERP through its programe to improve the fiscal sustainability and effectiveness of public expenditures.
Program would help improve education sector management and strengthen the functioning, capacity and accountability of provincial, district and school level management for education service delivery.
It would also help to improve access to quality schooling in rural areas for girls and to improve the quality of teaching and student learning.
It will also provide technical assistance to develop or refine strategies to enhance the performance of incentive programs for public schools to improve transparency and build Sindh’s Education sector capacity for the development of specialized skills needed for competency-based testing of teachers.
The bank would also provide US$ 250 million for Third Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Project.
The objective of the project is to empower the targeted rural poor with increased incomes, improved productive capacity and access to services to achieve sustainable livelihoods.
The Project consists of social mobilization and institution building, livelihood enhancement and protection, micro-credit access, basic services and infrastructure and project implementation support.
Source: Associated Press of Pakistan
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 12:57 PM,
,
Money Market, Forex and General New - 09-06-2009
MONEY MARKET
Pakistan's Central bank sold 10 billion rupees of Treasury bills in four-day repo contracts at 10.65 percent to mop up liquidity from the money market.
FOREX
Inter bank market opened at 80.75 & 80.80.Pressure was seen on local currency due to strong demand of green back fuelled by payments in the market, which depreciated the rupee to 81.05, day’s highest point. Market touched bottom at 80.80 for a while but later on lost twenty eight paisas at bid and offer each to close at 81.03 & 81.08.
GENERAL NEWS
- The government has decided to cut subsidies by Rs 100 billion, bringing them from Rs 220 billion to Rs 120 billion, and impose a huge 10-15 per cent Capital Gains Tax on moveable and immovable land transactions in the new budget. Out of the total Rs 120 billion subsidies for 2009-10, the government is going to allocate Rs 35 billion for wheat, Rs 10-15 billion for the fertilizer sector and the remaining amount for the power sector.
- The private sector advances of the scheduled banks have posted only one percent growth during July-March 2008-09 as against robust growth of 15.1 percent in the corresponding period of last year amid slowdown in business advances demand during the period under review. The YoY trend of private sector advances indicated that deceleration in business sector loans stemmed essentially from the fall in working and trade related loans.
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 11:37 AM,
,
LTFF For Generators and Captive Power Plant and Machinery
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has been decided that financing facilities under LTFF Scheme shall also be available to export oriented units/projects which presently are not eligible under LTFF Scheme for import of generators/captive power plants (including other allied machinery items used to generate electricity) on following terms & conditions;
- The capacity of generator/captive power plant shall not be in excess of their in-house energy requirements for the manufacturing of their products.
- In case of excess generation capacity, only the proportionate financing up to the manufacturing requirements of the unit/project will be eligible.
- Refinancing shall be allowed to the extent of 50% of financing provided by banks/DFIs for import of generators/captive power plants.
- Remaining 50% shall be financed by the banks/DFIs from their own sources as per the terms & conditions of financing banks/DFIs agreed with the borrowers concerned.
- L/Cs established since January 1, 2008 but retired/to be retired during the period from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009 shall be eligible for refinancing under the Scheme.
- Minimum exports of the unit/project should be at least 50% of its annual sales.
posted @ 10:08 AM,
,
Netsurfing: What’s in a blog?
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
By Zainub Razvi
Blogs have come a long way from their humble beginnings in 1997 when blogging pioneer Jorn Barger first began to maintain a log of his daily surfing routine. Little did he know that less than a decade later, Time magazine would honour bloggers and their contributions by naming ‘you’ as their 2006 Person of the Year.
The rise of blogs in Pakistan as an alternative new media has been slower as compared to the rest of the world, where blogging has been at the forefront pretty much ever since Google bought the Evan William’s brainchild Blogger.com in 2003. But even this slow rise to prominence is noteworthy for a country where the internet penetration and literacy levels are not something to be proud of.
To borrow from the tagline of the recently organised ‘National Bloggers Conference’ in Karachi that was hosted by the Sindh government’s IT department, blogging in Pakistan has evolved from ‘past time to prime time’. While Pakistan’s growing blogosphere continues to present a kaleidoscope of the complex and contradictory developments within the country, many of the non-bloggers outside Pakistani blogosphere still aren’t completely sure of what blogs are anyway.
Casual discussions with many students reveal, for instance, that while they can relate to what a blog is, they aren’t as clear on what distinguishes them from other websites. Maira Khan, an International Relations student at the University of Karachi, for instance, admitted that while she had heard of the term blog, the only difference she could spot between a blog and regular website was user comments. Other people thought blogs weren’t really different from the rest of the Web at all. Hina Mujeeb, a Mass Communications major, for instance, described a blog as “an interactive forum on the net like many others”.
Others tended to differentiate on the basis of the format. Zurfishan Saleem of the Sheikh Zayd Islamic Centre, for instance, pointed out that “a blog appears more like a personal diary, whereas a website is something more formal and official”. Another student, Maryam Mehboob, believed that, “Blogs as compared to other sites tends to be less traditional and more casual. While websites are usually dedicated for a collective cause, blogs are a personal statement reflecting the individuality of the person owning it.”
The truth is that the line between blogs and other websites is fast blurring. Ever since blogs have emerged as a platform for citizen journalism, it has become rather confusing for the average internet user to distinguish a blog from other news websites, especially if blogs are designed in a way to look like one. While many blogs are designed to resemble a web journal, more and more are being modelled to look like a regular website. A case in point is The Huffington Post blog which seems more or less completely identical to any regular news website, when it is in fact an aggregate political blog featuring opinion columns as blog posts from a myriad group of columnists.
Many other websites have at the same time embraced the impact of blogs by accommodating many of the features associated with a blog. The Guardian newspaper’s website for instance, now gives readers the options to “comment” on a news piece using a small form at the bottom of the page. Admittedly, the comments policy here tends to be far stricter than on other blogs, including even Guardian’s own blogs, where people are given a much more free hand in voicing their opinions. Other websites have incorporated RSS feeds and social bookmarking widgets that were first popularised by blogs.
The overriding point of difference between blogs and the rest of the cyber world, however, seems to be the structural format of blogs. Blogs, at least the popular ones, tend to be dynamic websites; their content is updated very frequently, sometimes several times within a single day. The updates are arranged in a reverse chronological order. The rest of the web tends to be more static. A business company’s website, for instance, may not be updated for several days, perhaps even months.
Additionally, these updates are database-driven, meaning that the content one enters into the blog is stored in a database, which can later be distributed as a ‘data feed’. RSS or Really Simple Syndication is the feed that most blogs employ. With RSS, content can be viewed through any RSS reader or aggregator on another website or on a computer or portable device. Again, the lines between blogs and other types of websites are blurring as more business owners choose to build their site with content management systems similar to RSS.
But those who do purposely make their blogs “look like blogs” tend to follow a similar content layout arrangement. A blogroll or a list comprising the blogger’s favorite blogs is usually placed on the left- or right-hand sidebar, which usually also contains to the blog’s achieve, its RSS feed and other blogging widgets, which are tiny add-ons that give added functionality to blogs.
Another difference can be traced down to ownership. A majority of blogs tend to be owned by individuals or groups of individuals with a common interest, but here too, the concept of corporate blogging is fast emerging. Almost all online news websites have their separate blogs within their larger websites and now even private enterprises and businesses have their own blogs, such as Google’s Gmail Blog.
The bottom line seems to be that with the growing Web 2.0 trends it’s much harder now to implicitly demarcate a blog from the rest of the World Wide Web. Whether it is in layout, style, content or comments, blogs and the rest of the World Wide Web seem to be merging and gaining more and more from each other.
Blogs have come a long way from their humble beginnings in 1997 when blogging pioneer Jorn Barger first began to maintain a log of his daily surfing routine. Little did he know that less than a decade later, Time magazine would honour bloggers and their contributions by naming ‘you’ as their 2006 Person of the Year.
The rise of blogs in Pakistan as an alternative new media has been slower as compared to the rest of the world, where blogging has been at the forefront pretty much ever since Google bought the Evan William’s brainchild Blogger.com in 2003. But even this slow rise to prominence is noteworthy for a country where the internet penetration and literacy levels are not something to be proud of.
To borrow from the tagline of the recently organised ‘National Bloggers Conference’ in Karachi that was hosted by the Sindh government’s IT department, blogging in Pakistan has evolved from ‘past time to prime time’. While Pakistan’s growing blogosphere continues to present a kaleidoscope of the complex and contradictory developments within the country, many of the non-bloggers outside Pakistani blogosphere still aren’t completely sure of what blogs are anyway.
Casual discussions with many students reveal, for instance, that while they can relate to what a blog is, they aren’t as clear on what distinguishes them from other websites. Maira Khan, an International Relations student at the University of Karachi, for instance, admitted that while she had heard of the term blog, the only difference she could spot between a blog and regular website was user comments. Other people thought blogs weren’t really different from the rest of the Web at all. Hina Mujeeb, a Mass Communications major, for instance, described a blog as “an interactive forum on the net like many others”.
Others tended to differentiate on the basis of the format. Zurfishan Saleem of the Sheikh Zayd Islamic Centre, for instance, pointed out that “a blog appears more like a personal diary, whereas a website is something more formal and official”. Another student, Maryam Mehboob, believed that, “Blogs as compared to other sites tends to be less traditional and more casual. While websites are usually dedicated for a collective cause, blogs are a personal statement reflecting the individuality of the person owning it.”
The truth is that the line between blogs and other websites is fast blurring. Ever since blogs have emerged as a platform for citizen journalism, it has become rather confusing for the average internet user to distinguish a blog from other news websites, especially if blogs are designed in a way to look like one. While many blogs are designed to resemble a web journal, more and more are being modelled to look like a regular website. A case in point is The Huffington Post blog which seems more or less completely identical to any regular news website, when it is in fact an aggregate political blog featuring opinion columns as blog posts from a myriad group of columnists.
Many other websites have at the same time embraced the impact of blogs by accommodating many of the features associated with a blog. The Guardian newspaper’s website for instance, now gives readers the options to “comment” on a news piece using a small form at the bottom of the page. Admittedly, the comments policy here tends to be far stricter than on other blogs, including even Guardian’s own blogs, where people are given a much more free hand in voicing their opinions. Other websites have incorporated RSS feeds and social bookmarking widgets that were first popularised by blogs.
The overriding point of difference between blogs and the rest of the cyber world, however, seems to be the structural format of blogs. Blogs, at least the popular ones, tend to be dynamic websites; their content is updated very frequently, sometimes several times within a single day. The updates are arranged in a reverse chronological order. The rest of the web tends to be more static. A business company’s website, for instance, may not be updated for several days, perhaps even months.
Additionally, these updates are database-driven, meaning that the content one enters into the blog is stored in a database, which can later be distributed as a ‘data feed’. RSS or Really Simple Syndication is the feed that most blogs employ. With RSS, content can be viewed through any RSS reader or aggregator on another website or on a computer or portable device. Again, the lines between blogs and other types of websites are blurring as more business owners choose to build their site with content management systems similar to RSS.
But those who do purposely make their blogs “look like blogs” tend to follow a similar content layout arrangement. A blogroll or a list comprising the blogger’s favorite blogs is usually placed on the left- or right-hand sidebar, which usually also contains to the blog’s achieve, its RSS feed and other blogging widgets, which are tiny add-ons that give added functionality to blogs.
Another difference can be traced down to ownership. A majority of blogs tend to be owned by individuals or groups of individuals with a common interest, but here too, the concept of corporate blogging is fast emerging. Almost all online news websites have their separate blogs within their larger websites and now even private enterprises and businesses have their own blogs, such as Google’s Gmail Blog.
The bottom line seems to be that with the growing Web 2.0 trends it’s much harder now to implicitly demarcate a blog from the rest of the World Wide Web. Whether it is in layout, style, content or comments, blogs and the rest of the World Wide Web seem to be merging and gaining more and more from each other.
Labels: Blogs
posted @ 1:45 PM,
,
Economic and Business Updates - June 01 to June 07, 2009
- Private sector credit growth declines to a six year low of three per cent by the end of april 9 due to low de- mand for working capital ahead of slow economic activi- ties and high interest rate, says third quarterly report of state bank.
- Weakness in domestic de- mand, power shortages and de- terioration in law and order sit- uation have shrunk the large scale manufacturing growth, says state bank of pakistan’s third quarterly report.
- Dow jones indexes, a lead- ing global index provider, and the federation of euro-asian stock exchanges plan to launch the dow jones feas indexes, which will include the karachi stock exchange.
- The federal cabinet accords approval to the signing gas sale purchase agreement on iran-pakistan gas pipeline project.
- The commerce ministry is facing stiff resistance from local industry over its reported move to allow afghanistan to import goods from india through wagha border.
- The national economic council approves Rs. 621 billion allocations for public sector development programme 2009-10 having Rs. 421 billion federal and Rs. 200 billion pro- vincial components.
- The state bank of pakistan indicates that the impending economic slowdown and do- mestic securities issue may dampen the growth of the banking system in coming months.
- The federal board of revenue collected a revenue of Rs989 billion in july-may (2008-09), registering a growth of 15.50 per cent over the corre- sponding period of the last fiscal year.
- Monetary expansion jumps up by almost four per cent in a month as the govern- ment gears up borrowings from all possible resources which push its budgetary sup- port borrowing even higher than in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.
- Prime minister yousuf raza gilani constitutes a cabi- net committee to evaluate the proposed textile policy, envi- saging specific initiatives, for achieving an export target of $25 billion and creating 2.9 million jobs over next five years.
- Banks post a massive decline of 23 per cent in profita- bility during the first quarter of the calendar year 2009 due to slow credit off-take amid poor economic activities.
- Furnace oil prices go up by Rs2,559 per ton due to rising demand and low supply, say dealers.
- The punjab government may formally end wheat pro- curement drive by mid june, as daily arrival drops to 8,000 tons as its earlier dateline of may 31 has passed. mean- while, the department stocks have reached 5.72 million tons and at the current rate of ar- rival might reach between 5.8 and 5.85 million tons.
- Government borrowing for commodity operations goes skyrocketing by mid may 2009. at its level on may16, 2009, it showed an increase of Rs152.5 billion over the level achieved in fy 2008.
Labels: Economy and Business
posted @ 10:52 AM,
,
Sales Tax Query
Monday, June 8, 2009
From Adnan
Currently FBR give us the option to file revise sales tax return before 30th of June (if any discrepancies involved) and they send the discrepancy reports to both parties (Buyer & Seller) and told to resolve that discrepancy by contacting each other. The purpose for this is just to remove the differences Occur in either of one rupee Output taken by one company and the declaration by other company.
Now, i will give you a situation. Any body able to give me a answer is highly appreciated.
Situation:
Now, i will give you a situation. Any body able to give me a answer is highly appreciated.
Situation:
If Our company made a sale in the month of January 2009 and file that in the same period (i.e, Sales Tax return of January 2009), but the company to whom we made a sale declared and file this as a purchase in the month of February (i.e, Sales Tax Return of February 2009) for input tax claim. Then, due to this difference in month we have received a discrepancy report from FBR.
So, how could we tackle this problem?
What is the best way to resolve this issue?
Labels: Sales Tax
posted @ 11:17 AM,
,
Pensioners Get Relief
The Supreme Court, in a Suo-Moto Notice in respect of the problems being faced by the pensioners, has ordered that pension may be disbursed through all branches of all the licensed banks and banks may be instructed to transfer the amount of pension in the pensioners’ accounts on the procedure adopted for payment of salaries.
In order to implement the honorable Supreme Court’s decision, State Bank of Pakistan has advised the commercial banks to:
- Instruct all the branches to cooperate with the pensioners whenever they approach for account opening.
- The accounts of government/semi-government/defense paid pensioners shall be exempted from levy of service charges as directed vide BPD Circular No. 23 of 2003 and the private pensioners should be allowed to open Basic Banking Accounts in terms of BPRD Circular No. 30 of 2005.
- Ensure that the pension amount received from the relevant pension giving agencies is transferred to the pensioners’ account in a timely manner.
- Ensure that adequate seating arrangements and clean drinking water facilities are available in the branches for all senior citizens, especially for old-age pensioners as also advised vide BPD Circular No. 03 of 2006 w.r.t utility bills collection.
- The bank staff should help and facilitate old-age pensioners (senior citizens) in availing banking facilities and treat them with respect and dignity as directed vide BSD Circular Letter No. 17 of 2000.
- Approach the relevant pension giving agencies and finalize the procedural formalities for payment of pension in the manner prescribed by the Supreme Court.
- Violation of the above instructions will attract penalty under the Banking Companies Ordinance, 1962.
Labels: SBP
posted @ 11:00 AM,
,
Job in Dawood Group
Dawood Group is looking for following posts located in head office, Karachi for its new Wind Energy Project.
Manager Accounts
Qualification: Chartered Accountant
Experience: 2 to 3 years in manufacturing organization
Accountant:
Qualification: CA Intermediate
Experience: 2 years
Apply within 15 days at this e-mail address
Labels: Jobs
posted @ 10:38 AM,
,
Logic is Variable
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Logic is Variable - it is the "variation" that matters - is a resource for my thoughts. More often, I blog form impressions and or generate ideas to see how they invoke reactions, to keep track of others’ work in the fields of my interests, or simply to rant or point out things that come to my attention.
Also, I use blogging as a platform to prune ideas. This is where I meet others. And “I am neither geek, nor nerd, I am not a hacker, a phreaker, a programmer or any variety of technoid dweeb.” Have a look and let me know what you think?
Also, I use blogging as a platform to prune ideas. This is where I meet others. And “I am neither geek, nor nerd, I am not a hacker, a phreaker, a programmer or any variety of technoid dweeb.” Have a look and let me know what you think?
Labels: Blogs
posted @ 8:07 PM,
,
Taxation Updates - From 01-06-09 to 06-06-09
15 percent regulatory duty levied on molasses export:
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has imposed regulatory duty (RD), at the rate of 15 percent ad valorem, on export of molasses, with immediate effect. According to SRO 321(I)/2009 issued here on Saturday, 15 percent RD would be applicable on export of molasses.
No WHT exemption certificate on iron, steel supply:
The Federal Board of Revenue has rejected issuance of withholding tax exemption certificate on the supply of iron and steel products used as raw materials in the finished products such as auto parts by local manufactures
Industries Ministry lobbying to raise regulatory duty on molasses export:
The Ministry of Industries and Production is reported to be lobbying to raise regulatory duty (RD) on molasses export from 15 percent to 25 percent on the insistence of some top policy makers, sources in the Ministry told Business Recorder.
Property CVT to be deposited through new challan form:
The purchasers of the immovable property, including commercial and residential property within urban areas, are required to deposit the capital value tax (CVT) under the new challan form. In this connection, the FBR has amended the CVT Rules 1990 through SRO 416(I)/2009 issued here on Wednesday. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued new CVT challan form on property transactions to introduce the system of Computerised Payment Receipt (CPR) by banks.
Penal surcharge for warehouse goods waived:
The Chairman, LCCI Standing Committee on Liaison with FBR, Aftab Ahmad Vohra has lauded the issuance of SRO 404 (I)/2009, wherein the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Revenue have allowed to keep the warehouse goods in the warehouse till June 30, 2009 without any penal surcharge.
Sindh plans to raise sugarcane support price by 22 percent:
The Sindh government has planned 22 percent increase in the support price on 40 kg of sugarcane for the next year's seasonal crop. With this 22 percent increase, the support price on 40 kg of sugarcane would jump from Rs 81 to Rs 103. The support price was previously increased up to 14 percent, from Rs 67 to Rs 81to encourage the growers to enhance sugarcane yield in the province.
ITBA takes note of amendments to Income Tax Rules 2002:
Income Tax Bar Association (ITBA) has taken a serious note to the amendments made in Income Tax Rules 2002 vide SRO No 392(1) 2009 dated May 19th, even though the Bar and other Stakeholders had objected to the amendments.
Labels: Taxation
posted @ 1:52 PM,
,
Money Market, Forex and General News 05-06-09
MONEY MARKET
Money market opened at 12.50%.Market topped at 12.75% but later on liquidity drove the market dOwn to just 3% and market closed at the same level as well.
FOREX
The USD / PkR opened at levels of 80.70/75 and went as high as 80.85 and closed at 80.80 / 85.
GENERAL NEWS
- The State Bank of Pakistan has alarmed that excessive borrowings of the government from the commercial banks may deprive the private sector of easy access to liquidity.
- The anticipated weaker performance of revenues, and increase in expenditures both point to the risk of slippage in the fiscal deficit target, and a contingent increase in financing requirements. Moreover, the private sector credit growth continued to show deceleration as it recorded net retirement of Rs127.1 billion in January-March FY09 compared with net lending of Rs203.1 billion in first half of FY09.
- The central bank said the domestic liquidity condition, as a result of slowdown in domestic credit requirements by the government and private sector and sharp fall in pace of depletion of NFA (Net Foreign Asset) of the banking system have continued, so far, remained relatively easy.
- The overall deposits mobilization by banks remained weak during the July-March FY09 as overall deposits of the banking system witnessed a contraction of 0.6 per cent on cumulative basis.
- Trade deficit recorded a break from rising trend of the past six years, declining by 15.9 per cent during July-April FY09. This was principally led by a 9.8 per cent fall in imports that more than offset a small three per cent fall in exports during this period.
- A larger share of the improvement in trade deficit was observed during January-April FY09; due to a sharp 35.1 per cent fall in imports that outpaced a yet large 19.2 per cent fall in exports in this period.
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 10:54 AM,
,
Cost Cutting - Part II
posted @ 10:03 AM,
,
World Bank - Lendor Of The Last Resort
Friday, June 5, 2009
The World Bank on Thursday approved $900 million in loans to improve education in Pakistan's Punjab and Sindh provinces and support a poverty-fighting fund for local community groups.
The World Bank money comes as Pakistan struggles with a balance of payments crisis and fighting in the northwest of the country that has left 2.5 million people homeless.
The World Bank said the $650 million in financing for the Punjab and separate Sindh education sector reform projects were aimed at encouraging more children to go to school and improve the quality of schooling.
Also, another $250 million for the Third Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, which the Bank has supported since 2000 and has reached more than 2 million people, will seek to support community groups with financing, micro-credit loans and skills training for the poor.
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 4:46 PM,
,
Money Market, Forex and General News 04-06-09
MONEY MARKET
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted a T-Bill auction Yesterday with the settlement date on June 4, 2009. There is a maturity of Rs. 44 billion from the previuos auction. The tenors offered are 3, 6 &12 months.
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted a T-Bill auction Yesterday with the settlement date on June 4, 2009. There is a maturity of Rs. 44 billion from the previuos auction. The tenors offered are 3, 6 &12 months.
In the treasury bills (T-bills) auction held yesterday, the Government has raised PkR53.57bn on the three and twelve month tenors. The yield on six month paper declined to 13.1420% from 13.1876%.
The return on one-year paper fell to 13.2481% from 13.2997% while bids for the three-month paper were rejected. In this regard, the SBP raised PkR4.28bn through the six month paper and PkR49.29bn through the twelve-month tenor.
FOREX
The USD / PkR opened at levels of 80.70/75 and went as high as 80.78 and closed at 80.72 / 75.
GENERAL NEWS
As per the fact sheet of Dow Jones- FEAS Composite Index, Pakistan is likely to garner a 9.3% share in the index, fourth largest weight in the index. This development holds symbolic significance as it marks another step towards Pakistan re-emergence on the international radar screen following a period of obscurity since floor imposition.
The material impact of this development should take time to materialize as
1) index tracker of ETFs for newly launched indices take time to evolve;
2) this is predominantly a frontier market index, which as an asset class is less tracked than emerging markets and
3) apart from US, the following of Dow Jones remains limited. While we do not have break down of components, the number of Pakistan stocks in the index is believed to be ~70. However none of the Pakistan stocks have made it to the top 10 weights for the index.
DJ-FEAS Composite is a hybrid of emerging and frontier markets. We examine foreign portfolio numbers since Pakistan’s exclusion from MSCI EM.
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 10:20 AM,
,
GDP Growth and Inflation Forecast
Thursday, June 4, 2009
- Pakistan's central bank lowered on Thursday its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for the 2008/09 (July-June) fiscal year to between 2.0-3.0 percent from its previous estimate of 2.5-3.5 percent.
- Pakistan achieved GDP growth of 5.8 percent in the 2007/08 fiscal year, and the government had originally set a growth target of 5.5 percent for the current year.
- In a quarterly report, the State Bank of Pakistan also raised its 2008/09 average inflation forecast to between 20.5-21.5 percent from an earlier forecast of between 19.5-20.5 percent.
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 11:56 AM,
,
Money Market, Forex and General News 03-06-09
MONEY MARKET
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted a T-Bill auction today with the settlement date on June 4, 2009. There is a maturity of Rs. 44 billion from the previuos auction. The tenors offered are 3, 6 &12 months. The maturity dates for 3, 6 & 12 month T-Bills are August 27 ' 09, Dec 03 ' 09 & June 03 ' 10 respectively.
FOREX
The persistant trend of volatility in the interbank persisted.The USD / PkR opened at levels of 81.05/10 and went as high as 81.05 and closed at 80.75 & 80.80.
GENERAL NEWS
- 1Q CY09 reflected the broad based economic strains on the banking system with Asset Growth flat at just 1.6% over Dec08 for the 40 banks in the industry. Advances shrunk by nearly 6% over the previous quarter, indicating the risk-aversion of the banking system
in a high interest rate, high default risk environment. Meanwhile Investments rose at a much faster pace of 20% over Dec08 with Bank’s re-allocating assets towards risk-free government securities. - Coming off an extremely difficult 2008 for the economy, YoY economic indicators showed an improvement in April 2009. However, MoM numbers suggest signs of some pent up pressure.
- Inflation (based on all three indices), trade and current account deficits showed YoY improvement but increased MoM. Remittances while still fairly strong YoY, were lower MoM. From an administrative perspective 1) Supreme Court's directive to lower
retail oil prices and 2) delays in firming up budget targets which led to IMF's next tranche being delayed from June to July, raised a few concerns. On the positive front however the 61bp decline in 10-yr PIBs reinforced views of a potential cut in discount rate in coming
months.
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 9:28 AM,
,
My Candidate For Upcoming ICAP Election
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
ATHER HUSSAIN ZAIDI
FCA, LLB, CFE
CREDENTIALS
- Admitted to ICAP membership in 1990
- Other qualifications include CFE, LLB, FCIS, B.Com (First position in the University) and excellent academic record throughout.
- Educator Member Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, USA in 2008.
- Past Memberships: MBIM UK, ACEA, MFT.Com UK, Member AGA, USA.
- Founded Pakistan Professional Forum in Iran.
INVOLVEMENT IN ICAP ACTIVITIES
Served on the following committees of ICAP
- Publications Committee
- Technical Advisory Committee
- Continuing Professional Development Committee
- International Affairs Committee
- Authored articles for ICAP Journal and wrote comments on IFAC Exposure Drafts
ACTIVITIES
- Currently in International Civil Service in the, Islamic Republic of Iran as Head Financial Administration in the Parliamentary Union of OIC Member States (2001 todate).
- Past appointments include:
- Director, Ford Rhodes Robson Morrow.
- Financial Controller, Royal Dutch Shell E&P Company, Islamabad.
- Controller, Southern Group of Companies.
WHAT HE VALUE
- I am not a businessman
- I do not deal in money, I deal in values, and these values are:
- Professional commitment
- Absolute honesty
- Full transparency
- Confidentiality unless it is against the public good
HIS AGENDA
- Admission on merit and growth on performance.
- Produce locally and export globally.
- Expanding the role of ICAP to bring public sector in its fold.
- Improve reputation and achieve Sustainability
- Recognition and de-recognition.
- Why big-4?
- Free ICAP from external pressures.
- Rationalization of ICAP Committees.
- Optimizing ICAP members’ role in market
- Improving Quality and risk management standards of ICAP.
- Merger of firms.
- Professional indemnity insurance.
ELECTION MANIFESTO
- Bring the system of education & training of ICAP at par with fully developed accounting bodies to get international recognition on the twin principles of reciprocity and quality matching.
- Opening up of opportunities for members in umpteen areas currently unexplored.
- Encourage members to play proactive role and exercise their right to get service from ICAP.
- Developing ICAP members as Pakistan’s most important intellectual capital for achieving the development and societal growth.
- Make CA profession globally recognized and make available more opportunities in Pakistan and abroad through a web-based portal of ICAP.
- Cleaning up of the society from personal culture (of baradari, sect, caste and creed) and moving to a strong professional and corporate culture.
- Establish a Research Centre in ICAP in collaboration with the leading universities, research centres and Higher Education Commission.
- Encourage academic research in Pakistan for award of PhD in major ICAP curriculum.
- Securing a quota of at least one technocrat seat in the Senate of Pakistan for ICAP members.
- Securing eligibility for ICAP members for appointment in various Public sector positions, including trade and commercial attaché in Pakistan Embassies, Director General Commercial Audit, Director General Performance Audit, and also for the highest slot of Accountant General and Auditor General of Pakistan.
- Bring a fine balance in the practice of Big-4 and SMPs.
- Enforcing more stringent principles of ethics and professional conduct that is needed to revamp our profession for greater public confidence.
- Ensuring representation of ICAP not only on the board and various committees of IFAC but also on the employment pool of IFAC, IASB, etc.
- De-recognising the qualifications and training of other institutes not following IFRS in Toto.
- Adoption of all IFRS immediately and preparing normative, industry based guidelines and procedures in furtherance to the implementation of IFRS.
- Looking into seriously the role of unrecognized bodies like Institute of Corporate Secretaries of Pakistan and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Pakistan and how they fit into Pakistan situation.
CONCLUDING STATEMENT
- Please do not misunderstand me
- I am not a hardliner
- I believe in Consultation and teamwork
- I do believe in sports and recreational activities, but I have my own way to please my superiors
- May God help me to serve my profession to the best
Labels: ICAP
posted @ 2:02 PM,
,
Financial and Business Terms - from Cale to Call
- Calendar effect: The tendency of stocks to perform differently at different times, including such anomalies as the January effect, month-of-the-year effect, day-of-the-week effect, and holiday effect.
- Call: An option that gives the right to buy the underlying futures contract.
- Call date: A date before maturity, specified at issuance, when the issuer of a bond may retire part of the bond for a specified call price.
- Call money rate: Also called the broker loan rate , the interest rate that banks charge brokers to finance margin loans to investors. The broker charges the investor the call money rate plus a service charge.
- Call option: An option contract that gives its holder the right (but not the obligation) to purchase a specified number of shares of the underlying stock at the given strike price, on or before the expiration date of the contract.
- Call premium: Premium in price above the par value of a bond or share of preferred stock that must be paid to holders to redeem the bond or share of preferred stock before its scheduled maturity date.
- Call price: The price, specified at issuance, at which the issuer of a bond may retire part of the bond at a specified call date.
- Call protection: A feature of some callable bonds that establishes an initial period when the bonds may not be called.
- Call price: The price for which a bond can be repaid before maturity under a call provision.
- Call provision: An embedded option granting a bond issuer the right to buy back all or part of the issue prior to maturity.
- Call risk: The combination of cash flow uncertainty and reinvestment risk introduced by a call provision.
- Call swaption: A swaption in which the buyer has the right to enter into a swap as a fixed-rate payer. The writer therefore becomes the fixed-rate receiver/floating rate payer.
- Callable: A financial security such as a bond with a call option attached to it, i.e., the issuer has the right to call the security.
Labels: Dictionary, Financial and Business Terms
posted @ 1:45 PM,
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Pakistan's 2009-10 Budget - What to Looking for
Pakistan will announce its budget for the 2009/10 (July-June) fiscal year on June 13. Following are details of the budget that have been announced and media reports on its likely contents.
MACROECONOMICS
MACROECONOMICS
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects Pakistan's real gross domestic product growth to be 2.5 percent in the 2008/09 fiscal year and 3.5 percent in the 2009/10 fiscal year. This compares with an original target of 5.5 percent for 2008/09 and 5.8 percent achieved in 2007/08.
- The Ministry of Finance would propose a government tax collection target of 1.405 trillion rupees for the 2009/10 fiscal year.
- The target for this fiscal year was 1.25 trillion rupees and the government collected 849.2 billion rupees in the first nine months. The Federal Board of Revenue collected 989.096 billion from July to May.
- The National Economic Council is likely to approve a growth target of 3.3 percent for the next financial year.
- The newspaper also said the budget outlay for the next fiscal year would be 2.9 trillion rupees, while the revenue collection target will be 1.406 billion rupees.
- The budget deficit for the next fiscal year will be 5 percent of GDP, and 343 billion rupees will be alloted for defence.
- The IMF said on its website it had reached a preliminary understanding to increase the 2009/10 deficit target to 4.6 percent of GDP.
- The National Economic Council was likely to approve 595 billion rupees for the Public Sector Development Programme for the 2009/10 fiscal year.
SUBSIDIES AND DUTIES
- Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance said on Sunday the government had decided to abolish subsidies on the gas, electricity and oil sectors.
TAXES
- There would be no new taxes on industry and the rate of general sales tax would remain the same, Tarin said on Saturday.
- The government is considering taxing capital gains on real estate after excluding initial buying cost, transfer documentation cost, provincial fees and the impact of inflation.
Labels: Pakistan Budget, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 1:01 PM,
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Money Market, Forex and General News - 03-06-2009
MONEY MARKET :
Money market opened at 12.75 percent. Market traded within the band of 11-13 percent. After making a high low of 12.75 percent & 11.25 percent respectively, market closed at 11.75 percent.
FOREX:
Inter bank opened at 81.20 & 81.25.Market topped at 81.23 but later on rupee gained strength against greenback and made a low of 81.10.After gaining thirteen points at bid and offer side inter bank closed at 81.07 & 81.12.
GENERAL NEWS:
- Sluggish economic activity and poor credit off take impaired the banking sector’s profits by 23 percent in just three months of current year.
- Banks’ windfalls went down to Rs 16.455 billion in Jan-March 2009 as compare to last year’s Rs 21.417 billion, depicting a massive decline of Rs 4.962 billion.
- Foreign banks’ profit declined to Rs 38 million from last year’s Rs 1219 million while Local banks’ profit declined to Rs 16.417 billion from Rs 20.198 billion. Absence of foreign capital inflows, huge government borrowing from banks and banks’ hesitation towards lending due to rising Non Performing Loans (NPLs) kept the credit growth slow which eventually hurt
bottom line of the banks. - General Motors Corp., one of the worlds’s leading automobile manufacturers and a century old company, has finally filed for the bankruptcy. The company which was once amongst top ten companies of Fortune 500 has now been delisted from New York Stock Exchange and Dow Jones Industrial average. This is the third largest bankruptcy in Unites States’ corporate history and largest ever in Manufacturing sector. The bankruptcy would cause more than twenty thousand job cuts The U.S and Canadian government will have a stake in reorganized GM. Furthermore, another U.S ailing auto giant Chrysler, is also offered for sale to Italian automaker Fiat.
Labels: Economy and Business, Pakistan Economy
posted @ 11:00 AM,
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Job in Pakistan Tobacco Company Limited
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
- Industry: Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)
- Category: Human Resource
- Job Type: Permanent
- Job Location: Jehlum
- Gender: Doesn't Matter
- Minimum Education: Master's Degree
- Degree Title: MBA or Masters in HR / Organizational Psychology
- Career Level: Manager
- Minimum Experience: 2 Years(Atleast 2 years experience in Collective Bargaining in an industrial environment)
- Apply By: Jun 12, 2009
Labels: Jobs
posted @ 3:25 PM,
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I Should Have Said No
A CFO who confessed to fraud wants business students to learn from his mistakes. An interview with Aaron Beam, former CFO, HealthSouth Corp.
At 66, Aaron Beam is getting on with his life. Six years ago Beam made headlines by admitting that he cooked the books at HealthSouth Corp., the Birmingham, Alabama-based provider of inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services that he co-founded. The four men who succeeded Beam as finance chief also confessed to the $2.7 billion accounting fraud, which took place between 1996 and 2002. All five CFOs pleaded guilty to criminal charges and testified that HealthSouth co-founder and CEO Richard Scrushy was behind the fraud. But the defense hammered away at their credibility during Scrushy's 2005 trial, and Scrushy was acquitted of all charges. (He was, however, convicted of bribery in 2006, and is currently serving an 82-month sentence in a Texas federal prison.)
Released after three months in a minimum-security pen, Beam retreated to his small hometown of Loxley, Alabama. Having sold his $3 million dream home to pay restitution and legal fees, Beam now lives modestly and mows lawns for a living. But he is also developing another career: educational speaker. By telling his story to business students, Beam thinks he can teach a highly personal lesson in ethics that will stick.
Most CFOs can probably tell stories about the CEOs they've worked with, but in your case it sounds like an especially difficult relationship.
Unless you were there and experienced it, it's hard to understand. You couldn't tell [Scrushy] no on anything. I have seen him so mad over minor things that I actually feared for my physical safety. I often joke with students that if Richard Scrushy and Hannibal Lecter were in a fight, I would bet on Richard Scrushy
Edward Teach - CFO Magazine
Click here to read more
Labels: Accountants, Financial crisis
posted @ 1:45 PM,
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ICAP Council's Election 2009
Concerning ICAP Council's Election my preferred candidate is Syed Athar Hussain Zaidi FCA. I was also impressed of the slides that he presented during pre election session by all candidates. In fact the institute should release those slides also. Those members who couldn't attend that session can view his final write up including resume and goals for the future;
Honourable members,
“Fear of Allah is the root of all wisdom” – A statement of last prophet Mohammad (SAW), inspired and guided me all my life, and that provided me with the strength and perseverance being the bed-rock of what little I have achieved in life. Commencing my career as ICAP student during the period of extreme exploitation of students’ community forced me to voice against certain idiocy then prevailing against students. Some solutions for which I fought with full support of my staunch contemporaries were: setting up of students association; revision in stipend structure; withdrawal of discriminatory system of shorter duration article ship and longer duration audit ship; removal of bar on examination attempts, and many more. My aggressive stance did delay my membership with the Institute, contrary to my excellent academic record.
Achieved first class with first position in the Board in D.Com in 1974 and first class with first position in the University in B.Com in 1977. This was followed by membership of ICAP in 1990 after having completed five years’ of strenuous training with A. F. Ferguson & Co. Other significant academic achievements are: LLB and CFE.
While I had been mistreated in my career with a number of employers who were found delinquent and involved in unethical and unlawful acts, Allah has been very kind to me and I have always been bestowed new opportunities in my career, which included my role as Financial Management Consultant of the World Bank, Director at Ford Rhodes Robson Morrow, Islamabad, Controller of a company of Royal Dutch Shell Group, and now amongst my fellow professionals, I believe I am the only candidate for the Council who has the honour to be an International Civil Servant, with diplomatic privileges and full opportunity of bringing good name to the country and the profession.
I have served on the following committees of the ICAP:
International Affairs Committee (propounded the idea and drafted ToR of this Committee); Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Committee; Technical Advisory Committee; and Publications Committee.
I have been on the visiting faculty of the following professional bodies, universities and various academies and training centers of civil servants, government officers and professional staff.
Academy for Educational Planning and Management at Islamabad; MBA department of Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, first visiting faculty of Allama Iqbal Open University and Preston University (now claimed as the largest private university of the country) at Rawalpindi; Pakistan Audit and Accounts Training Institute established under the auspices of the Auditor General of Pakistan; Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan, Islamabad Centre; National Bank Staff College, Islamabad; Oil and Gas Training Institute of the Oil and Gas Development Corporation of Pakistan at Islamabad; and Teaching for the refresher course classes of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Rawalpindi.
In 1993, I emerged as one of the two members of ICAP from Islamabad who openly opposed the idea of recognizing the membership of CPA US, ACCA and CIMA UK for admission to ICAP without following the principle of reciprocity and quality control. While I spoke vehemently on the subject in seminar and gave shut up call, my views were accorded recognition for a technical write up on the subject. While the issue of granting undue recognition to the accountants of foreign bodies was almost killed and, I initiated a new thinking in the ICAP i.e. to seek recognition of our own accountants abroad instead of recognising all foreign accountants without asking them to study our tax and corporate laws and regulatory systems. It prompted me to write an article on the International Recognition of Pakistan Accountants which denied its publication in the Pakistan Accountant for no good reason.
On December 31, 2001, I left my country and joined the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States, Iran as Head of Finance Department. In Iran, apart from my normal duties of CFO and the Principal Advisor to the Secretary General, I have made some worthwhile achievements that include working as a senior consultant on staff training and development programme with the National Iranian Oil Company, Petroleum University and the Institute of Management Research & Education of the Ministry of Energy, Iran, Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Iran, Tehran Centre of the International Management Institute of Belgium and International University of Chabahar. In a country where everything is in Farsi, I have made special efforts to promote the cause of the profession and to serve a larger number of accounting community as their coach, mentor and career counsellor. In Iran, I have been teaching courses on Advance Professional Development and thus bringing a good name to the country, ICAP and the profession.
I have also written articles and edited some monographs which have been published in the Pakistan Accountant. I am also a candidate for the appointment of member on the International Financial Reporting Interpretation Committee (IFRIC) of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) from Middle East and Asia. I took the initiative and with the support of the Pakistan Embassy in Tehran, we formed Pakistan Professional Forum (PPF) in Iran and I have been nominated as the first Secretary General of PPF, Iran. I have also contributed my time, money and efforts through charitable and educational organizations such as Rotract Club, Universities and academic and training institutions. I have participated in International Conferences and travelled to a number of countries in Europe, Africa, Far East and Middle East.
As the saying goes, ”Innovative people don’t do different things but do things differently”, in my opinion the following few areas are important among others as in all these areas I have left a different mark:
Continuous Professional Development activity in new Economic & Business Environment; Updating of Knowledge of Members by bringing out publications, holding seminars, conferences and webinars; Representation to Government on various business and economic matters.
“I have my promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep”, I believe I have my responsibility substantially towards the profession and to members and now come to you with more ideas for future.
Goals for the future:
- First and foremost, I will remain accessible to members, so that I can better understand their aspirations. Every single e-mail you send me will be responded following the netiquettes.
- Bring the system of education and training of ICAP at par with fully developed accounting bodies to get international recognition on the twin principles of reciprocity and quality matching;
- Opening up of opportunities for members in umpteen areas currently unexplored;
- Encourage members to play proactive role and exercise their right to get service from ICAP;
- Developing ICAP members as Pakistan’s most important intellectual capital for achieving the development and societal growth in Pakistan; Make CA profession globally recognized and make available more opportunities in Pakistan and abroad through a web-based portal of ICAP;
- Cleaning up of the society from personal culture (of baradari, sect, caste and creed) and moving to a strong professional and corporate culture;
- Establish a Research Centre in ICAP in collaboration with the leading universities, research centers and Higher Education Commission;
- Encourage academic research in Pakistan for award of PhD in major ICAP curriculum; Securing a quota of at least one technocrat seat in the Senate of Pakistan for ICAP members;
- Securing eligibility for ICAP members for appointment in various Public sector positions, including trade and commercial attaché in Pakistan Embassies, Director General Commercial Audit, Director General Performance Audit, and also for the highest slot of Accountant General and Auditor General of Pakistan;
- Bring a fine balance in the practice of Big-4 and the other small and medium size practitioners;
- Enforcing more stringent principles of ethics and professional conduct that is needed to revamp our profession for greater public confidence;
- Ensuring representation of ICAP not only on the board and various committees of IFAC but also on the employment of IFAC, IASB, etc.;
- De-recognizing the qualifications and training of other institutes not following IFRS in Toto;
- Adoption of all IFRS immediately and preparing normative, industry based guidelines and procedures in furtherance to the implementation of IFRS;
- Looking seriously into the role of unrecognized bodies like Institute of Corporate Secretaries of Pakistan and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Pakistan and how they fit into Pakistan situation.
I sincerely hope that MY CONTRIBUTIONS AND MY ASPIRATIONS WILL PROMPT YOU TO CAST AT LEAST YOUR FIFTH PREFERENCE VOTE TO ME IF NOT THE FIRST, SECOND, THIRD OR THE FOUTH. Nevertheless, I expect first preference vote from my overseas brothers as I am the only overseas candidate in the history of ICAP elections. My brothers in Rawalpindi and Islamabad where I belong should cast at least their second preference vote and my brothers in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and other locations can cast their third, fourth or fifth preference vote. It is my desire to meet each of you in person but time may not permit it. However, you can reach me through telephone, SMS and email and enlighten me with significant issues that you would like me to take cognizance of whether or not this journey takes me to the ICAP Council seat.
I now leave the verdict in your able hands with my prayer of the Holy Quran – He profits most who serve best (Al Quran).
Labels: ICAP
posted @ 10:31 AM,
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