News Pulse (June 25, 2013) Telecom sector’s outflows reach $390.9m (TN) Pakistan’s telecom sector has witnessed net outflows of $390.9 million in the outgoing financial year, official sources told the News on MondayExperts said that puts a big question mark on the the PML-N government’s plan to auction Third Generation (3G) technology to fetch around $1 billion in licence fees. The raising of these funds is seen as crucial in helping the government combat the circular debt issue and thus the energy crisis - as well as loan rescheduling with the IMF.But telecom sector players are offloading their shares, making it hard for the government to reverse this trend in the next financial year by attracting increased overall investment of over $1 billion, the officials said. “For reversing this trend from outflow to inflow in terms of the foreign direct investment (FDI), the government will have to come up with a comprehensive package to achieve success in 3G auction,” the officials said. IMF team extends stay by one week: policy-level talks from June 28 (BR) The Inter-national Monetary Fund (IMF) has reportedly extended stay in Pakistan by one week and policy-level talks would now begin witth economic team from June 28. Sources said that the Fund delegation led by Jeffery Frank would remain in Pakistan till July 4 instead of June 28, 2013 to hold detailed discussion with the Pakistani authorities. On Monday, the IMF delegation reportedly held technical level talks with the officials of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Finance Division and Economic Affairs Division. Senior official of Finance Ministry reportedly stated that next fiscal year target of 2.5 percent reduction in fiscal deficit and 4.4 percent GDP growth would be achieved. Impact of age reduction : CBU of cars depicts 63 percent yearly fall (DT) Imports of Completely Built-up Units (CBUs) of motorcars declined significantly by 62.75 percent to $17.09 million in May 2013 on yearly basis as against $45.89 million in corresponding month of last year, revealed Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday. The main reason behind this considerable drop was age limitation on imports of used cars enforced by the government in last year’s December. Thus, importers of this segment were constrained to import only three-year old used cars from five-year old cars, resultantly inflow of used cars in the country remained sluggish during the last three months of this year. According to the break-up, total imports of used cars went down by 6.0 percent on monthly basis in May 2013 to $17.09 million in contrast to the worth of $16.06 million in April 2013. Govt to likely bring feed gas price to fuel gas price level (DT) The government is likely to bring the feed gas price of $3.2 per million British thermal unit (MMBTU) to the level of fuel gas price of $5.5 per MMBTU, analysts said on Monday. They said with the increase and shift of feed gas price to fuel gas price Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) will be automatically lowered from $1.9 per MMBTU to 0.6 per MMBTU. Toplines’ Asad I Siddiqui told this scribe that news regarding elimination of feed gas subsidy on gas supplied to the fertilizer producers has been circulating and the newly elected government has given serious thought with minister for water and power labelling gas rates to fertilizer sector as unacceptable. Powering up: Govt to finally pay IPPs Rs285b in outstanding dues (Tribune) As the government looks set to clear over Rs285 billion in outstanding dues of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) this week, a meeting of the country’s top economic decision making body has been called to find a way to settle some thorny issues in the matter. The maiden meeting of the new Economic Coordination of the Cabinet (ECC) will be held before the end of this week. It will review the possibility of renegotiating a few terms of the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with IPPs and approve a structure for the settlement payments, sources said. Growth, turnaround in banking sector remarkable, unprecedented (DT) During the years, growth and turnaround in Pakistan’s banking sector has been remarkable and unprecedented, the profitability of banks has risen to an exceptional level, credit is fairly diversified and bank-wide system risks are well-contained. Haroon Agar President Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry talking to Yuri Yu Petrushchik head of Financial Institutions and International Business Division and member of the Executive Board of OJSC Smolensky Bank of Russian at KCCI articulated the banking and financial institutions in Pakistan witnessed a productive growth and many leading international banks started their business in Pakistan. Kibor declines by 25-32 basis points (BR) Following the cut in the key policy rate, Karachi InterBank Offer Rate (Kibor) declined by 25-32 basis points (bps) on Monday. In an unexpected move, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), citing a broad-base decline in the inflation, on Friday announced to cut the discount rate by 50 bps to 9.0 percent from 9.5 percent. With the current decline, overall some 500 bps cut has been witnessed in key policy rate during the last 23 months, while a major cut of 300bps has registered during this fiscal year (FY13). Some impact of this cut was also witnessed in the money market, in which Kibor has declined by some 25-32 basis points. A cut of some 32bps has witnessed in 6-months Kibor, which stood at 9.12 percent on Monday compared to 9.44 percent on Friday. While, 3-month Kibor has also dipped by 25 bps to 9.11 percent. Analysts said that at present market is facing some liquidity shortage in short term and Kibor rate is likely to further decline in next few days. KESC to charge extra 5% ST (DT) The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has announced that in compliance with the requirements of the federal government notifications of June 12, 2013, the company will start charging extra sales tax (ST) at the rate of 5.0 percent of the total billed amount, excluding the amount of federal taxes, to all unregistered industrial and commercial consumers and to the registered persons, who are not on the active taxpayers list. According to details, under the Federal Government Notifications 509(I)/2013 and 510(I)/2013 dated June 12, 2013, the company will start charging extra sales tax from the mentioned consumers, provided their monthly bill exceeds Rs 15,000. Such extra tax shall be levied with effect from June 13, 2013. Fertiliser makers demand ‘rational’ gas distribution (TN) Fertilizer Manufacturers Pakistan Advisory Council (FMPAC) has demandedrational distribution of natural gas from the government, a statement said on Monday. The statement said this was essential to keep all sectors of the economy running in order to generate the much-needed economic activities and subsequent generation of revenues for the national exchequer. It added that closing down a few industries or giving priority to one sector over other will not resolve the economic issues, hence, the best way should be to analyse as which sector is creating maximum value addition with the natural resources, especially gas. For further details contact: Hassan Amin [email protected] +9221-111-226-100 – Ext 702 Regards, Research Department Summit Capital (Pvt.) Limited Phone: +9221-111-226-100 Direct: 92-21-32467964 Fax: 92-21-32467959 Email: [email protected]
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 04:33:42 +0000
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