Pakistan’s economy pivots around two essentials, ie, textiles and energy because 60% of our exports constitute textiles, while 30% of imports comprise energy. This becomes more critical when various studies project the export potential at $50 billion per year by 2030, though they were worth only $16.5 billion in FY 2022-23 with the historical maximum reaching $22.1 billion in FY22. Some sour
A new narrative of “home-grown solutions” takes the lead. A piece by Dr Ishrat Husain endorsing it appeared in The News on June 8. It’s a good omen that the narrative of home-grown solutions is making waves, though not in government circles, and only in the domain of civil society thinking (this thinking takes shape mostly in WhatsApp group chats and published writings). After cursorily enlisti
It’s been about 14 to 15 years since the 18th Constitutional Amendment and the preceding 7th NFC Award; both have now come of age. The amendment resulted in many good outcomes, through its 102 amendments. However, two (out of the 100-plus amendments), which govern the division of revenues between provinces and the federation, have led to some undesired consequences for financial management of t
Remittances from the export of information and communication technology (ICT) services surged to $332 million in May 2024, reflecting an astounding increase of 40.7% compared to export earnings of $236 million in May 2023. Overall, in 11 months (July-May) of the current fiscal year, the ICT export remittances swelled to $2.925 billion compared with the income of $2.371 billion reported for the
The plea was compelling enough that it not only won the consensus of all senators but also left the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) representatives without a substantive counterargument. PRBC highlighted a critical flaw in the current tax structure as only 5% of the retail sector was registered and compliant while a staggering 95% remained outside the tax net, contributing nothing to the treasur