Financial Risk Manager: Economic and Business Updates

Economic and Business Updates - May 25 to 31, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

THE external debt servicing has crossed $3.6 billion mark in first nine months of the current fiscal year mainly due to payments for euro bonds and short-term loans.
IMF delays release of third tranche for Pakistan by a month. This is because some tax measures have not been completely delineated which has resulted in submission of budget data, discloses a government official on condition of anonymity.
THE Federal Board of Revenue freezes bank account of Trading Corporation of Pakistan for non-payment of disputed tax of Rs9 billion, say sources.
THE country has overcome financial crisis and, with sufficient fiscal space, the Public Sector Development Programme for the next fiscal year will be of about Rs500 billion.
IMF says unemployment rate is likely to increase in Pakistan owing to steep decline in foreign direct investment and remittances during the current fiscal year.
ETISALAT, the buyer of Pakistan Telecommunication Company, withholds $799.3 million until Pakistan government transfers properties in Sindh and Punjab in favour of PTCL, say sources in the Privatisation Commission.
PAKISTAN Railways seeks a supplementary grant of Rs13.26 billion to meet its operational requirements.
THE Large Taxpayer unit, Islamabad, recovers Rs3 billion from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority on account of non-payment of income tax for 2004-07.
HUNDREDS of tons of imported refined sugar have been stolen from a godown of the Trading Corporation of Pakistan.
THE Federal Board of Revenue proposes Rs1405 billion revenue collection target for the next fiscal year (200910) against the collected projection of Rs1160-1170 billion for the current FY 2008-09.
THE government envisages two separate allocations of Rs30 billion for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha dam in the budget for the fiscal 200910, discloses an official source.
OUTFLOW of dollars from the country remains only 10 per cent of what it was before the collapse of the global financial system that eroded the boom in Dubai and other Gulf countries, say experts recently returning from the region.
PAKISTAN produces an average of 66,000 barrels per day of crude oil during the first ten months of the current fiscal year, five per cent less than produced during the same period last fiscal year.
ALL major residential projects have come to a standstill as the House Building Finance Company Limited has almost frozen loan sanctioning owing to liquidity problems.
THE Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan proposes reduction in withholding tax rate from one per cent to 0.1 per cent on import of gold through the National Exchange Commodity Limited from 2009-10.