News

Tax the rich, not the poor, farmers tell govt

Farmers have asked the government to tax the rich instead of the poor to remove unjust burden on the people, particularly the farming community which is running the economy by toiling day and night at their fields. “The government should tax the rich and elite class of the country by going for direct taxes instead of over­­burdening the poor masses by levying indirect taxes like general sales t

Big industry production contracts in July

Large-scale manufacturing (LSM) experienced a year-on-year negative growth of 1.09 per cent in the first month of the current fiscal year, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday. On month-on-month, it witnessed a steeper contraction of 3.62pc in July. The decline in LSM can primarily be attributed to a slowdown in production within the textile and clothing sector

Cotton output jumps despite pest attack

Notwithstanding the ongoing heatwave, poor picking and bugs attack, at least 0.9 million bales of raw cotton reached ginning factories during the last two weeks in the country keeping the hopes alive for a much better crop this year as compared with the last season. The figures released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) for the first fortnight of September reveal that around 3.9

Monetary policy

DEFYING market expectations of a 100-300 bps hike in the interest rates, the State Bank has again left its key policy rate unchanged at 22pc. In support of its decision, the bank cites a declining trend in inflation from its peak of 38pc in May to 27.4pc last month, despite the recent surge in global oil prices that are being passed on to consumers. Therefore, it maintains that the “real int

Situationer: The 70 billion dollar question: will they come?

EVEN after the country’s rulers dangled the carrot of foreign investments amounting up to $70 billion in front of them, experts, bankers and analysts in Pakistan are finding it hard to digest the prospect of such massive inflows, given the tattered state of our fundamentals. After the formation of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), the general impression is that the armed force