Indian FM to discuss IP gas pipeline in Tehran

01

BUSINESS

BSaturday, 4 May, 2013

ISLAMABAD

APP

PRIME Minister Mir HazarKhan Khoso on Friday di-rected the Ministry of Fi-nance to allocate substantialfunds for agriculture, en-

ergy, health and education sectors in thenext budget and come up with recommen-dations to broaden the tax base.

The premier issued these directivesduring a presentation given by the Min-istry of Finance on the state of the econ-omy and the preparation of budget for thenext financial year at the PM House.

Khoso said Pakistan was blessed withhuge resources and it was up to us to ex-ploit its potential for the progress and wel-fare of the people of the country.

He also directed the Ministry of Fi-nance to further streamline the procedure

for remittances so that overseas Pakistaniscan send money back home conveniently.

This, he said, would also lead to in-crease in the amount of remittances,which is presently estimated to reach $14billion.

The PM was told that due to satisfac-tory performance shown by the agricul-ture sector in the past few years, theConsumer

Price Index (CPI) has remained in thesingle digit.

He directed more emphasis on agri-culture sector because he said it had thepotential of addressing the issue of unem-ployment as well as enhancing the rate ofeconomic growth.

The meeting was attended by Adviserto Prime Minister on Finance Dr ShahidAmjad Chaudhry and senior officials ofthe finance ministry, Planning Divisionand PM Secretariat.

PM for substantial budget allocation toagriculture, energy, health, education

TEHRAN

ONLINE

Indian External Affairs Minister SalmanKhurshid is slated to discuss extension ofa gas pipeline project which would takeIran’s rich gas reserves to Pakistan and thento India during his upcoming visit toTehran, media reports said.

Khurshid and his Iranian counterpartAli Akbar Salehi will talk about the exten-sion of Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline inTehran, an Indian newspaper reported.

Khurshid is slated to discuss bilateralties and mutual cooperation with Iraniansenior officials. The Indian external affairsminister is visiting Iran to attend the 17thJoint Iran-India Commission.

Khurshid is the co-chairperson of thecommission along with Iranian ForeignMinister Ali Akbar Salehi.

Iranian Oil Ministry spokesmanAlireza Nikzad Rahbar announced thatNew Delhi has renewed interest in the ex-tension of IP gas pipeline to India.

“Since India has been motivated by

Pakistan’s seriousness in construction ofthe IP peace pipeline, New Delhi is nego-tiating to join the project,” Nikzad Rahbarsaid.

The Iranian official noted that “therehas been considerable progress in the IPgas pipeline, with Iranian contractors start-ing work on the Pakistani section of thepipeline, after finishing nearly 900 kilome-ters of the pipeline on Iran’s soil”.

Last month, Moily emphasised that hiscountry will not halt imports of Iraniancrude oil, rejecting recent western news re-ports to the contrary.

While noting that unilateral anti-Iransanctions by the US and the EuropeanUnion have caused some difficulties forIndia in terms of insuring Iranian oil ship-ments, Moily told reporters in New Delhithat his country intended to establish a spe-cial fund for insuring oil imports originat-ing from the Islamic republic.

India, the world’s fourth-largest petro-leum consumer, is Iran’s second largest oilcustomer after China and purchases around$12 billion worth of Iranian crude every

year, about 12 percent of its consumption. Last month, Iran and Pakistan offi-

cially inaugurated the construction phaseof a gas pipeline project which is due totake Iran’s rich gas reserves to the energy-hungry south Asian nation.

The project kicked off in a ceremonyattended by Iranian President MahmoudAhmadinejad and his Pakistani counterpartAsif Ali Zardari at the two countries’shared border region in Iran’s southeasterncity of Chabahar.

The 2700 kilometer long pipeline wasto supply gas for Pakistan and India whichare suffering a lack of energy sources, butIndia had evaded talks. In 2011, Iran andPakistan declared they would finalise theagreement bilaterally if India continued tobe absent in the meeting.

According to the project proposal, thepipeline will begin from Iran’s AssalouyehEnergy Zone in the south and stretch over1,100 km through Iran. In Pakistan, it willpass through Balochistan and Sindh but of-ficials now say the route may be changedif China agrees to the project.

Inflation takesanother dip to 5.8 % in April

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

The inflation number gauged by ConsumerPrice Index (CPI) in April stood at 5.8 percentcompared to 6.57 percent last month. This, an-alysts said, is the second month straight thatsaw the number hitting another low of the re-based CPI index. This is the lowest reportedreading, including the old base, since March2004. Inflation stood at 1.1 percent as against0.4 percent in March on a month-on-month(MoM) basis and at 7.8 percent in the first tenmonths of financial year 2013 (10MFY13)versus 10.80 percent in the same period lastyear. Compared to last month non-perishablefood items- 30 percent weightage- witnessed adecline of 0.3 percent but a one percent in-crease in HRI index resulted in a higher num-ber. Other heads, which witnessed asubstantial increase, were perishable fooditems, up by 13 percent MoM, and education,up 2.5 percent MoM, said analysts fromTopline. “On a yearly basis, reduced gas pricesand no increase in electricity tariff has contin-ued to keep the base low,” viewed NaumanKhan of Topline Research. The core inflation,that consists of non-food and non energyitems, stood at 8.7 percent in April as against9.0 percent last month while trimmed core in-flation came down to 7.6 percent as against 8.4percent last month. With another soft inflationreading in April, analysts estimate FY13 aver-age inflation is likely to stand below 8 percentwhich is significantly lower than the govern-ment target of 9.5 percent. “We foresee lowerinflation reading which can possibly delay thereversal rate eyed by market participants to-wards 2013 end,” said the analyst.

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

Branchless banking (BB) in the countrycontinues to grow substantially with thenumber of BB accounts climbing to 2.1million during October–December in fi-nancial year 2013 (FY13). Almost 35million transactions worth Rs 151 bil-lion have been processed during thequarter, said the State Bank of Pakistan(SBP) on Friday.

SBP said the sector had seen an“impressive” quarterly growth of 20percent over the corresponding periodof last year. The central bank, in its lat-est Branchless Banking Newsletter, at-tributed this upward trend mainly to a49 percent growth in level 0 accounts.

The Level 3 accounts, it said, alsoregistered a significant growth of 37 per-cent during the quarter mainly due toentry of two new players, ‘Mobicash’ and‘Timepey’ while a marginal growth of 2percent was observed in both level 1 and2 accounts.

The average size of transaction wasRs 4,278, while the average number oftransaction per day increased to392,433 from 354,367 during the previ-ous quarter, it added.

The fast growing network of BBagents reached 41,567 as of 31st De-cember, 2012 from 30,540 as of 30thJune, 2012, registering an increase of36 percent.

“This growth is attributablemainly to the entry of new players,”the SBP said.

However, it said, this number didnot take into account “shared” agents(i.e., an agent serving multipleproviders).

The branchless banking depositshave grown by 35 percent to Rs 1 bil-lion while person-to-person (P2P)fund transfers constituted a significantshare of 33 percent in the value oftotal transactions.

According to SBP, bill paymentsand top-ups (45 percent) ranked first,followed by P2P fund transfers (34percent).

Government-to-people (G2P) wel-fare payments through BB channelsincreased from Rs 4.1 billion to Rs 5billion, registering a growth of 27 per-cent during the quarter.

Moreover, Rs 2.7 million havealso been disbursed to Employees’Old-Age Benefit Institution’s pension-ers through agents.

Branchless banking transactionvolume balloons to Rs 151b

85% of internet usersworldwide choosemobile: report

ISLAMABAD: Recent reports have shownthat 85% of users around the world namemobile phone as their first choice, making itthe most preferred channel for accessing theinternet. Further findings revealed that notonly does the vast majority prefer to go on-line via their mobile devices but 11% alsochoose them at home as an alternative toturning on their personal computers (PCs),reported the Live Science Website. The rea-son for mobile devices’ massive popularityis that they allow users to stay connected atall times and in all places, but the resultsalso show a tendency for multiple deviceutilisation. Users are likely to combinebrowsing on smartphones with internet ac-tivities carried out via PCs and tablets. PCsare used as a complementary device by 6%of respondents, while tablets are used by0.48%. Communication with friends is stillthe most popular activity for mobile inter-net users, as stated by 61%, followed by en-tertainment, at 35%. The survey also foundthat demand for media and financial serv-ices is still high, with these categories scor-ing 31% and 23% respectively. APP

KCCI calls for increasedPakistan-Thailandeconomic cooperation

KARACHI: Karachi Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (KCCI) PresidentMuhammad Haroon Agar emphasised onenhanced interaction between the Pakistaniand Thai business communities includingfrequent visits of delegations for exploita-tion of excellent economic opportunities inPakistan and Thailand. Thailand is an im-portant country of ASEAN bloc, he saidwhile exchanging views with Thai AirwaysGeneral Manager in Pakistan Polapat Nee-labhamorn, who called on him at the cham-ber, said a KCCI release on Thursday. Thebusinessmen of the two countries shouldfrequently travel to each other’s country tomake the best use of the tremendous busi-ness opportunities existing in Pakistan andThailand, he said. Agar also proposed for aThai Airways stall in the Thai Pavilion atKCCI’s 10th International Trade Exhibition“My Karachi: Oasis of Harmony” sched-uled to be held in July this year. He said fre-quent flights between the two countries areessential to facilitate business travel andtransportation of air cargo, particularly ofperishable goods. APP

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BUSINESSSaturday, 4 May, 2013

Swiss business delegation on fact-finding mission to Pakistan

KARACHI: A Swiss economic delegation was in Pakistan for

a two-days visit of Karachi and a day-long visit of Islamabad.

This delegation was co-organized by the Embassy and the

Consulate General of Switzerland in order to portray Pakistan

as an economic partner having great potential for investment

and business ventures in several sectors of the economy. The

delegation was led by Ambassador Eric Martin, Delegate of

the Federal Council for Trade Agreements, Head of Bilateral

Economic Relations, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

(SECO), Federal Department of Economic Affairs. It was a

high profile public and private sector delegation visiting

Pakistan after many years. During the visit, the delegation

met senior government officials and businessmen. The main

objective of their visit was to further deepen official and

business to business contacts between Pakistan and

Switzerland to explore mutually beneficial business

opportunities. The delegates exchanged views with the

Switzerland based multinational companies operating here

and had fruitful meetings and discussions with the Board of

Investment and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan. PR

NIB’s Q1 2013 results show arecord profit of Rs 549 millionKARACHI: NIB Bank announced Financial Results for the Q1

2013 on Friday, 19 April 2013. Importantly, the Bank has

posted a Q1 2013 revenue of Rs. 1.42 billion, representing not

only a 21% growth over Q1 2012 but an impressive revenue

growth in the last five quarters. This translated into a record

profit before tax of Rs. 549 million, compared to a loss before

tax of Rs. 98 million in Q1 2012. Profit before tax of Rs. 549

million as against loss before tax of Rs. 98 million in Q1 2012.

Total revenue increased by 21% to Rs. 1.42 billion Net interest

income increased by 53% Non-funded income increased by

24% (excluding the impact of subsidiary dividends in Q1

2012). Expenses increased by only 2% Provision charge

reduced by Rs. 313 million and provision reversals have also

increased by Rs. 214 million, aggregating to a swing of Rs.

527 million in net credit provisioning between the two first

quarters. The increase in current accounts and pro-active

management of cost of funds in a declining interest rate

environment led to a substantial reduction in gross interest

expense. As a consequence, net interest income between the

two first quarters of 2012 and 2013 increased by 53%. PR

CORPORATE CORNER

02

B

Major Gainers

COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVERNestle Pak. XD 6650.00 6982.50 6980.00 6982.50 332.50 100Unilever Food XD 4900.00 5145.00 5125.00 5145.00 245.00 200Rafhan Maize SPOT 4675.16 4908.91 4848.00 4908.90 233.74 4,300Colgate Palmolive 1970.00 2010.00 2010.00 2010.00 40.00 1,750Siemens Pakistan 612.00 642.60 605.10 642.60 30.60 12,700

Major LosersIsland Textile 808.00 771.00 770.00 771.00 -37.00 200Bhanero Tex. 337.00 321.01 321.00 321.00 -16.00 200Clariant PaK. 345.91 348.90 337.00 340.00 -5.91 60,900Millat Tractors 503.95 505.00 498.00 498.61 -5.34 25,700Abbott Lab. XD 272.74 274.00 268.01 268.01 -4.73 2,500

Volume Leaders

TRG Pakistan Ltd. 10.18 10.40 9.77 10.04 -0.14 10,031,000Fauji Cement 9.10 9.17 8.91 8.97 -0.13 9,420,500Lotte Chemical 7.41 7.78 7.40 7.70 0.29 9,035,000Dawood Hercules 55.48 58.25 55.06 58.25 2.77 6,508,500Wateen Telecom Ltd 5.04 5.14 4.81 4.84 -0.20 5,924,500

Interbank RatesUSD PKR 98.2783GBP PKR 152.7834JPY PKR 1.0013EURO PKR 128.9510

ForexBUY SELL

US Dollar 99.70 99.95 Euro 129.09 129.34 Great Britain Pound 153.37 153.62 Japanese Yen 0.9912 1.0016 Canadian Dollar 97.26 98.97 Hong Kong Dollar 12.56 12.79 UAE Dirham 26.90 27.15 Saudi Riyal 26.40 26.65

KARACHI

ISMAIL DILAWAR

THE central bankis conducting apublic survey toimprove manage-ment of currencyin circulation in

the country. The survey intends toobtain public perception on new de-signed banknotes of various denom-inations introduced by the StateBank of Pakistan (SBP).

The central bank wants the bankcustomers to rank the design and se-curity features of Rs 5,000, Rs1,000, Rs 500, Rs 100, Rs 50, Rs 20and Rs 10 notes on a scale rangingfrom best to worst.

Asking for suggestions for im-provement in the existing bills, theSBP survey wants to know publicopinion on whether the bank shouldlaunch banknotes of other denomi-nations like Rs 2,000, Rs 10,000, Rs

200 or others.“You are aware that rapid tech-

nological advancements in digitalimaging and printing have helpedcounterfeiters to easily forge ban-knotes that lack advance securityfeatures,” the regulator told banks incircular No.CMD./114/2 (4) G-2013.

To curb these threats, it said, itwas necessary to make the ban-knotes modern and difficult to forgeas well as to efficiently process the

notes through electronic devicessuch as note counting machines.

Most banknote processing ma-chines in the market now require theavailability of machine readable fea-tures in banknotes to detect counter-feiting, it said.

The Note Deposit Machines andATM machines also required machinereadable features to identify genuinebills so that safe and cost effectivemedium of exchange and funds trans-

fer is provided to the public. “To obtain feedback on public

perception at our banknotes in circu-lation, a survey questionnaire is for-warded with request to get it filledby 10 valuable customers/visitors ona random basis from each of the se-lected branches of your bank,” theSBP circular said.

The findings of the surveywould be used to improve the ban-knote management at banks as wellas at the SBP, said the central bank.

“Therefore, kindly advise the con-cerned branch manager to nominate asuitable officer for filling the question-naire for achieving better results fromthis survey,” it asked the banks.

The central bank also requestedbanks to arrange to collect the filledquestionnaire from selectedbranches of their banks latest byMay 8 and to return it by May 10.

This, the SBP said, would en-able it to compile and develop a re-port on public perception very soon.

SBP seeks public opinionto curb banknotes forgery

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

In an apparent bid to formulate in-vestment policy for Pakistanis, wholeft the country during partition, aparliamentary panel on Friday de-cided to engage people from allprovinces to establish contacts withthose Pakistanis and to convincethem to invest in the country.

The Senate Sub-committee onCommerce that met with SenatorKarim Ahmed Khawaja in the par-

liament house said different coun-tries in the world engaged their citi-zens and brought them back to thecountry to increase investment andto boost economic activities. There-fore they said focus should beshifted on those Pakistanis who leftthe country during partition of thesubcontinent and established theirbusinesses abroad. Chairman of thecommittee, Senator Karim AhmedKhawaja said we have the exampleof China before us which calledback its citizens who had established

their businesses abroad and at the re-quest of their government they es-tablish businesses in their homeland.Through this mechanism, the Chi-nese government provided strongsupport to their economy and todaythey are an economic power, he said.

If we further delayed initiatingthis process then the gap betweenour generations will further expand,Khawaja commented.

Sentor Saifullah Khan Bangashsaid a large number of people weredoing businesses in different coun-

tries of the world and these peoplewanted to come to their homelandand invest. It is the responsibility ofthe government to approach themand give incentives, he added.

During the meeting, Federal Sec-retary Commerce Munir A Qureshiinformed the legislative body that theministry is in continuous contactswith commercial councilors and isworking to search all such peoplewho left the country during partition.He said although it will take time,“we are optimistic about it”.

Pre-1947 Pakistani settlers to beapproached for investment in country

ISLAMABAD

APP

Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry(ICCI) on Friday organised an advocacy seminaron consumer protection to creating awarenessamong masses.

The event titled “Energy Sector Regula-tion and Consumer in Pakistan” was organ-ised in collaboration with TheNetwork for ConsumerProtection Pakistan.

Speaking on the occa-sion ICCI President ZafarBakhtawari appreciatedthe initiative of The Net-work for Consumer Pro-tection for organising theseminar on consumer pro-tection laws and energysector regulations in Pak-istan to create better aware-ness on them.

He said consumer satis-faction is the top priority ofevery business and stressed de-veloping a culture where con-sumers’ rights are fully protected. ICCIwould regularly organise press conferences in up-coming Ramadan to put a proper check on accel-erated prices of necessary items so that consumersget these items at affordable prices, he added.

He assured that ICCI would provide full sup-port to The Network for Consumer Protection for

creating better awareness in the business commu-nity as well as among consumers on protectionlaws. We believe that increased awareness of theselaws would promote healthy business practicesand enable consumers to get quality products andservices, he added.

The ICCI president said the governmentshould take businessmen on board while for-mulating consumer protection policies and

laws so that such laws could bedeveloped with consensus.

Speaking on the occa-sion, The Network Execu-tive Coordinator NadeemIqbal highlighted activi-ties of his organisation onconsumer protection andpromoting awareness forconsumers in the country.

The organisation de-pends on the ongoing sup-port and collaboration of

different partners and na-tional and international or-

ganisations to meet its coreobjectives to protect consumers,

he added.He said The Network representa-

tives focused their vigor for consumer protectionin various areas such as water, breastfeeding, phar-maceuticals, tobacco control and consumer rights,access to justice, gender violence and women em-powerment and public health under World TradeOrganisation (WTO).

ICCI organises advocacy seminar onconsumer protection

New gas reservoirdiscovered inKhirthar Foldbelt,Shukhpur

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

Pakistan Petro-leum Limited

(PPL) in jointventurewith KuwaitForeign Pe-

troleum Ex-ploration

Company(KUFPEC) dis-

covered a new gasreservoir in the Kirthar Foldbelt. During the production testing, gas flowedat 33 million cubic feet per day highlight-ing an excellent potential for future en-ergy needs of the country.The director general petroleum conces-sions told the Minister for Petroleum andNatural Resources Sohail Wajahat H Sid-diqui that Eni Pakistan in joint venturewith the PPL and KUFPEC has made anew discovery of the gas reservoirs in theKirthar Foldbelt through Lundali-I welllocated in the Sukhpur block, 270 kmnorth of Karachi. The Landali-I is a 2,660meters deep well. It was further said the discovery will beappraised and subsequently be commer-cialised through an early productionscheme, making gas possible supplywithin three years. The minister for petroleum appreciatedthe efforts of everyone involved in dis-covery of the new gas reservoirs and saidthis discovery is good news for the nationand the energy sector of Pakistan.

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