News

GSP Plus not being adequately utilised

Former Governor Punjab Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar said that he had played an active role in getting the GSP-plus scheme from the European Union for Pakistan and is still working hard to get an extension of this scheme. Addressing the business community during his visit to the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), he said, “Pakistan will hopefully get the EU GSP-Plus facility for the

NTDC failure to cost consumers Rs80b

National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC)’s failure to lay transmission lines to evacuate electricity from Thar coal-based power plants has come under fire again, with concerns that this could burden consumers with a cost of up to Rs80 billion. Despite the reduction in electricity rates for February 2023, on account of fuel adjustment charges, consumers of power distribution companies (Di

Stocks lose 202 points on political tensions

Investors sold stocks on Wednesday to book profits, leading the representative index of the share market to close on the lower side. Topline Securities said buying interest was visible in selected blue-chip sto­c­ks during the early trading hours. But the news of the arrest warrant for PTI chairman Imran Khan dented the momentum. The news flow compelled the stock market to shed its early gains

Pakistan awaits China’s decision on rollover of $2bn loan that matured last week: official

China is working on a request by Pakistan to roll over a $2-billion loan that matured last week, a top finance ministry official told Reuters. The rollover is critical for the country as its foreign exchange reserves have dipped to just four weeks’ worth of imports at a time when it is locked in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure bailout funds. “It is a work in progre

Govt begins outsourcing of three major airports

The government on Thursday kicked off outsourcing of operations and land assets at three major airports to be run through a public-private partnership, a finance ministry statement said, a move to generate foreign exchange reserves. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has approved the hiring of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) — the private sector arm of the World Bank Group —