Profit E-paper 3rd November, 2012
2
Saturday, 3 November, 2012 ISLAMABAD APP The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is considering to launch a new scheme for affluent non-filers of tax and other tax evaders providing them an opportunity to pay their due taxes and bring them under the tax net regime and enhance revenues for the prosperity of the country. “We are considering to launch a new scheme called “Tax registration inputs with enforcement initiative” in order to bring about 4 million affluent people who were not filing their tax returns and did not pay tax to the government”, Asrar Raouf Senior Member Inland Revenue and Spokesman of FBR told journalists at an informal chat here at the FBR House on Friday. Senior members of the FBR were also present on the occasion. “This is not an amnesty scheme for the non tax payers only we are giving them an opportunity to come under the tax net regime by filing their returns and pay their due taxes to the government for the prosperity of the country”, Raouf said. He warned that any non-filer and evader of the tax who did not take benefit from the opportunity and continue to evade taxes, their Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) would be cancelled and they would not be able to do any business or travel abroad. In this regard the new scheme would be placed before the Parliament for ap- proval. Asrar Raouf expressed the hope that after introducing this new scheme FBR would be able to collect an additional amount of Rs.96 billion for the country. He further informed the journalists that tax collection ratio has been in- creased by 11 percent during the four months of the current financial year and realized Rs.559 billion. He added that in the month of Octo- ber of the current financial year Rs.140 billion have been collected against the collection of Rs.126 billion in the same period. He added that due to strikes in Karachi a loss of Rs.5 billion to 6 billion is incurred to national kitty. He added that so far 1.5 million tax- payers have filed their tax returns while the number should be more than 5 mil- lion. The Senior Member Inland Revenue said that the scheme of Registration in- puts with enforcement initiatives”is not a new idea as this scheme has been imple- mented in the many countries like USA, Spain, Australia and Greek etc and bene- fitted a lot from the scheme. Replying to a question, he clarified that by introducing this scheme govern- ment is not whitening the black money but providing the businessmen and afflu- ent people who had not been filing their returns for the past 65 years and did not pay taxes to the government. Through this scheme these people would be brought under the tax regime and enhance the revenues for the pros- perity of the country. He also stressed the need for elimi- nating Hundi system of transferring money which is causing losses to revenue collection of the country. “We have a record of 3.8 to 4 million rich people who are possessing assets, paying huge school/university fees for their children, travelling abroad many time, having dual accounts and did not pay taxes to the government for the past 65 years and we will give them an oppor- tunity to pay their due taxes to avoid any further legal action and come under the tax regime”, he remarked. He added that FBR is subordinate or- ganization of the Ministry of Finance and without approval of the Ministry no deci- sion is taken by the FBR. Asrar Raouf further said that tax poli- cies are home grown and not dictated by anyone and International Monetary Fund is also willing to impose and recover taxes from the affluent people who were not paying their due taxes. He also dispelled the impression that government would not be able to present its budget without financial support of the fund. Replying to another question, he said that action has been started against ille- gal and non custom paid vehicles and these are being impounded on daily basis. He expressed that hope that an addi- tional amount of Rs. 30 billion would be collected through action against illegal vehicles. He added that there is no scheme under consideration for the registration of illegal vehicles. FBR hunts down non-taxPaying Bigwigs Plans to launch new scheme for affluent non-filers of tax: spokesman KARACHI ISMAIL DILAWAR T HE equity market on Fri- day kept its northward jour- ney to peak beyond the historic high of 16,000 points, thanks to declining inflation that deepened the investors’ hope for further monetary easing by the central bank in its next monetary policy decision due early next month. Last trading session of the week saw the KSE 100-share index witnessing what the market observers said the highest ever close amid other positives like higher trades and market capitalization. “KSE 100 witnessed highest ever close amid higher trades after CPI inflation for October 2012 stood at 7.66pc raising ex- pectations for rate-cut by (the) SBP in pol- icy announcement,” viewed Ahsan Mehanti, a senior stocks market analyst. According to unofficial figures, the Consumer Price Index inflation for the month of October was recorded as low as 1.13 percent at 7.66 percent compared to 8.79 percent noted in the preceding month of September. With market observers attributing this decrease to declining food prices, the average inflation for the first four months of FY13 stood at 8.8 percent compared to 11.3 percent of the corresponding months in FY12. “We believe the major reason be- hind the decline is fall in food head,” opined Topline analyst Nauman Khan. This southward movement of the backbreaking price hike puts more weight behind the analysts’ view that the central bank in its next monetary policy statement in early December is like to slash the dis- count rate at least by 50 and at maximum by 100 basis points.Pinning hope in such forecasts the investors at Karachi stocks market made Friday a historic day in the history of country’s equity market where the benchmark KSE 100 index closed at all time high of 16,101.55 points, gaining 139.18 points over Thursday which saw the index hitting a record 15,962.37 points. The intraday high and low, respectively, stood at 16,107.38 and 15,962.37 points. On Thursday, the index was recorded at record intraday high of 16,005 points. Friday saw the trading turnover recorded at the ready counter higher at 191.494 million shares. This was against 189.190 million shares of the previous trad- ing session. Trading value also remained in the green zone increasing to Rs 5.18 billion from Rs 4.72 billion a day earlier. The market capitalization was seen swelling beyond Rs 4 trillion as against Thursday’s Rs 3.98 trillion. The free-float KSE-30 index also gained 133 points to close at 13,209.25 points against the pre- vious 13,076.04 points. Fauji Cement appeared as a volume leader by getting its 49.093 million stakes traded at a price opening from Rs 6.44 and closing at Rs 6.94. Of the total 351 scrips traded, 182 companies could end up in positive range, 145 in negative and 24 remained unchanged. The future con- tracts sold were recorded at 10.80 million against Thursday’s 9.51 million. Besides the investors’ hope for an- other discount rate-cut, higher global stocks and commodities and renewed foreign interest in oil stocks on strong valuations played a catalyst role in Fri- day’s bullish sentiments, said Mehanti, who serves as a director at Arif Habib Se- curities. This, the analyst said, was de- spite the investors’ concern for negatives like falling rupee-dollar parity ahead of repayments of the IMF loans due this month and higher import bills, security issues in the city and political crises in Balochistan province. “Primary reason for such improved performance from eq- uities has been cut in the policy rate by the central bank in first week of Oct-12,” commented Mazhar A. Sabir, an analyst at InvestCap Research. Monetary policy easing to go on as inflation dips to 7.6% KARACHI STAFF REPORT Expectations for another rate-cut by the central bank get more weightage as the backbreaking inflation is recorded to have gone down below 8 percent during the month of October. According to unofficial estimates, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) further slid to 7.66 percent compared to 8.79 percent noted in September. A monthly account of the price hike shows that inflation stood at 0.4 percent as against 0.8 per- cent in the previous month. On average, the in- flation in 4MFY13 arrived at 8.8 percent compared to 11.3 percent in the same period of last year. “We believe the major reason behind the decline is fall in food head,” said Nauman Khan, a researcher at Topline Research. However, he said, he was expecting a higher month-on-month number for the HRI head. In anticipation of lower CPI number, the bull- run in the federal government’s treasury bills and Pakistan Investment Bonds continue as yields hit five-year low on Friday in anticipation that the central bank would reduce the discount rate in its meeting due early next month. The benchmark 10-year Pak Rupee bond on Fri- day traded as low as 10.98 percent, a level not seen in last five years. Since July 2011, when the State Bank started the process of monetary eas- ing, the yield on benchmark 10-year PIBs has shrunk by over 300 basis points. The rally in short-term treasury papers is also gaining momentum as bankers and investors are aggressively locking their investment at higher rates. The yield for one-year T-bills de- clined drastically to 9.1 percent, the lowest level since July 2007. The 6-months and 3-months T-bills were, respec- tively, traded at 9.07 percent and 9.09 percent, lowest since August 2007. From last monetary policy the T-bill yield has decreased in the range of 70 to 75 basis points, while are down 430 to 480 basis points from July 2011. According to Khan, the soft inflation number is likely to prompt the central bank to opt for another rate- cut by 50 to 100 basis points in December. KSE’s on a record-breaking spree Share market clinches another historic high LAHORE APP SAARC Chamber of Commerce and In- dustry (SCCI), President Vikramjit Singh Sahnay Friday hailed the deci- sion of the Pak cabinet for ratifying the Pakistan-India visa regime agreement. In a message sent to VP SAARC CCI,Pak chapter Iftikahr Ali Malik, the SCCI chief said that it was a bold and historic decision by Pakistan to simplify the cumbersome procedure for the grant of visa with a view to promote people to people contact. He said that the epoch making de- cision would greatly help enhance trade and boost business activities between the two countries.He said that multiple entry on one year visa with exemption from police report and increase in the number of cities for visa holders would ensure smooth and frequent exchange of traders delegations of private sec- tors. Vikramjit said that the visa regime agreement singed by the former Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Pak Interior Minister Rehman Malik would prove a milestone in the economic history of the either country for further cementing Pak-India rela- tions besides strengthening trade in ad- dition to taking full benefits of technical expertise in different fields. He said that free movement of the business community would not only help improve the business environment but also positively affect the entire re- gion of South Asia. The SCCI Chief said that Pakistan and India,with the support of their pri- vate sector, have taken historic steps to normalize bilateral trade relations. South Asia is the fastest growing region in the world but also one of the least in- tegrated while the region’s trade with the rest of the world is growing rapidly, intra-regional trade is merely 5 per cent of its total trade, he added. Vikramjit said that despite being natural trade and investment partners, the volume of trade between Pakistan and India, the two largest economies of the region, had been extremely low. He said that for instance, total trade be- tween Brazil and Argentina amounted to US$33 billion in 2010, almost 15 times more than the current Pak-India trade of little over US$2 billion. He said that it was worth mentioning that Ar- gentina and Brazil too had a turbulent past of war and fierce rivalry. He said that bilateral trade between Pakistan and India a couple of years ago stood at an estimated US$1.83 bil- lion. India accounts for nearly 1.2 per cent of Pakistan’s global exports, while Pakistan accounts for less than 0.9 per- cent of India’s global exports, he added. Iftikhar Ali Malik said that the pri- vate sectors of either country had to play a key role in the prevailing situation for viable and sustainable better trade rela- tions for the welfare of people of the re- gion. He said opening of proper trade within the ambit of law between the two countries would help check billions of dollars of irregular and illegal trade (smuggling) through land and sea routes. Pakistan’s decision to ratify visa regime hailed 18-Business Pages- 03 November_Layout 1 11/3/2012 4:41 AM Page 1
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Profit E-paper 3rd November, 2012
Transcript of Profit E-paper 3rd November, 2012
Saturday, 3 November, 2012
ISLAMABAD
APP
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) isconsidering to launch a new scheme foraffluent non-filers of tax and other taxevaders providing them an opportunity topay their due taxes and bring them underthe tax net regime and enhance revenuesfor the prosperity of the country.
“We are considering to launch a newscheme called “Tax registration inputswith enforcement initiative” in order tobring about 4 million affluent people whowere not filing their tax returns and didnot pay tax to the government”, AsrarRaouf Senior Member Inland Revenueand Spokesman of FBR told journalists atan informal chat here at the FBR Houseon Friday.
Senior members of the FBR were alsopresent on the occasion.
“This is not an amnesty scheme forthe non tax payers only we are givingthem an opportunity to come under thetax net regime by filing their returns andpay their due taxes to the government forthe prosperity of the country”, Raoufsaid.
He warned that any non-filer and
evader of the tax who did not take benefitfrom the opportunity and continue toevade taxes, their Computerized NationalIdentity Card (CNIC) would be cancelledand they would not be able to do anybusiness or travel abroad.
In this regard the new scheme wouldbe placed before the Parliament for ap-proval.
Asrar Raouf expressed the hope thatafter introducing this new scheme FBRwould be able to collect an additionalamount of Rs.96 billion for the country.
He further informed the journaliststhat tax collection ratio has been in-creased by 11 percent during the fourmonths of the current financial year andrealized Rs.559 billion.
He added that in the month of Octo-ber of the current financial year Rs.140billion have been collected against thecollection of Rs.126 billion in the sameperiod. He added that due to strikes inKarachi a loss of Rs.5 billion to 6 billionis incurred to national kitty.
He added that so far 1.5 million tax-payers have filed their tax returns whilethe number should be more than 5 mil-lion.
The Senior Member Inland Revenue
said that the scheme of Registration in-puts with enforcement initiatives”is not anew idea as this scheme has been imple-mented in the many countries like USA,Spain, Australia and Greek etc and bene-fitted a lot from the scheme.
Replying to a question, he clarifiedthat by introducing this scheme govern-ment is not whitening the black moneybut providing the businessmen and afflu-ent people who had not been filing theirreturns for the past 65 years and did notpay taxes to the government.
Through this scheme these peoplewould be brought under the tax regimeand enhance the revenues for the pros-perity of the country.
He also stressed the need for elimi-nating Hundi system of transferringmoney which is causing losses to revenuecollection of the country.
“We have a record of 3.8 to 4 millionrich people who are possessing assets,paying huge school/university fees fortheir children, travelling abroad manytime, having dual accounts and did not
pay taxes to the government for the past65 years and we will give them an oppor-tunity to pay their due taxes to avoid anyfurther legal action and come under thetax regime”, he remarked.
He added that FBR is subordinate or-ganization of the Ministry of Finance andwithout approval of the Ministry no deci-sion is taken by the FBR.
Asrar Raouf further said that tax poli-cies are home grown and not dictated byanyone and International Monetary Fundis also willing to impose and recover taxesfrom the affluent people who were notpaying their due taxes.
He also dispelled the impression thatgovernment would not be able to presentits budget without financial support ofthe fund.
Replying to another question, he saidthat action has been started against ille-gal and non custom paid vehicles andthese are being impounded on daily basis.
He expressed that hope that an addi-tional amount of Rs. 30 billion would becollected through action against illegalvehicles.
He added that there is no schemeunder consideration for the registrationof illegal vehicles.
FBR hunts down non-taxPaying Bigwigs Plans to launch new scheme for affluent non-filers of tax: spokesman
KARACHI
ISMAIL DILAWAR
THE equity market on Fri-day kept its northward jour-ney to peak beyond thehistoric high of 16,000points, thanks to declining
inflation that deepened the investors’hope for further monetary easing by thecentral bank in its next monetary policydecision due early next month.
Last trading session of the week sawthe KSE 100-share index witnessing whatthe market observers said the highest everclose amid other positives like highertrades and market capitalization.
“KSE 100 witnessed highest ever closeamid higher trades after CPI inflation forOctober 2012 stood at 7.66pc raising ex-pectations for rate-cut by (the) SBP in pol-icy announcement,” viewed AhsanMehanti, a senior stocks market analyst.
According to unofficial figures, theConsumer Price Index inflation for themonth of October was recorded as low as1.13 percent at 7.66 percent compared to8.79 percent noted in the precedingmonth of September.
With market observers attributingthis decrease to declining food prices, theaverage inflation for the first four months
of FY13 stood at 8.8 percent compared to11.3 percent of the corresponding monthsin FY12. “We believe the major reason be-hind the decline is fall in food head,”opined Topline analyst Nauman Khan.
This southward movement of thebackbreaking price hike puts more weightbehind the analysts’ view that the centralbank in its next monetary policy statementin early December is like to slash the dis-count rate at least by 50 and at maximumby 100 basis points.Pinning hope in suchforecasts the investors at Karachi stocksmarket made Friday a historic day in thehistory of country’s equity market wherethe benchmark KSE 100 index closed at all
time high of 16,101.55 points, gaining139.18 points over Thursday which saw theindex hitting a record 15,962.37 points.The intraday high and low, respectively,stood at 16,107.38 and 15,962.37 points.On Thursday, the index was recorded atrecord intraday high of 16,005 points.
Friday saw the trading turnoverrecorded at the ready counter higher at191.494 million shares. This was against189.190 million shares of the previous trad-ing session. Trading value also remained inthe green zone increasing to Rs 5.18 billionfrom Rs 4.72 billion a day earlier.
The market capitalization was seenswelling beyond Rs 4 trillion as against
Thursday’s Rs 3.98 trillion. The free-floatKSE-30 index also gained 133 points toclose at 13,209.25 points against the pre-vious 13,076.04 points.
Fauji Cement appeared as a volumeleader by getting its 49.093 million stakestraded at a price opening from Rs 6.44and closing at Rs 6.94. Of the total 351scrips traded, 182 companies could end upin positive range, 145 in negative and 24remained unchanged. The future con-tracts sold were recorded at 10.80 millionagainst Thursday’s 9.51 million.
Besides the investors’ hope for an-other discount rate-cut, higher globalstocks and commodities and renewedforeign interest in oil stocks on strongvaluations played a catalyst role in Fri-day’s bullish sentiments, said Mehanti,who serves as a director at Arif Habib Se-curities. This, the analyst said, was de-spite the investors’ concern for negativeslike falling rupee-dollar parity ahead ofrepayments of the IMF loans due thismonth and higher import bills, securityissues in the city and political crises inBalochistan province. “Primary reasonfor such improved performance from eq-uities has been cut in the policy rate bythe central bank in first week of Oct-12,”commented Mazhar A. Sabir, an analystat InvestCap Research.
Monetary policy
easing to go on as
inflation dips to 7.6%KARACHI
STAFF REPORT
Expectations for another rate-cut by the centralbank get more weightage as the backbreakinginflation is recorded to have gone down below 8percent during the month of October.According to unofficial estimates, the ConsumerPrice Index (CPI) further slid to 7.66 percentcompared to 8.79 percent noted in September.A monthly account of the price hike shows thatinflation stood at 0.4 percent as against 0.8 per-cent in the previous month. On average, the in-flation in 4MFY13 arrived at 8.8 percentcompared to 11.3 percent in the same period oflast year. “We believe the major reason behindthe decline is fall in food head,” said NaumanKhan, a researcher at Topline Research.However, he said, he was expecting a highermonth-on-month number for the HRI head.In anticipation of lower CPI number, the bull-run in the federal government’s treasury billsand Pakistan Investment Bonds continue asyields hit five-year low on Friday in anticipationthat the central bank would reduce the discountrate in its meeting due early next month.The benchmark 10-year Pak Rupee bond on Fri-day traded as low as 10.98 percent, a level notseen in last five years. Since July 2011, when theState Bank started the process of monetary eas-ing, the yield on benchmark 10-year PIBs hasshrunk by over 300 basis points. The rally in short-term treasury papers is alsogaining momentum as bankers and investorsare aggressively locking their investment athigher rates. The yield for one-year T-bills de-clined drastically to 9.1 percent, the lowest levelsince July 2007.The 6-months and 3-months T-bills were, respec-tively, traded at 9.07 percent and 9.09 percent,lowest since August 2007. From last monetarypolicy the T-bill yield has decreased in the rangeof 70 to 75 basis points, while are down 430 to480 basis points from July 2011. According toKhan, the soft inflation number is likely toprompt the central bank to opt for another rate-cut by 50 to 100 basis points in December.
KSE’s on a record-breaking spreeShare market clinches another historic high
LAHORE
APP
SAARC Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry (SCCI), President VikramjitSingh Sahnay Friday hailed the deci-sion of the Pak cabinet for ratifying thePakistan-India visa regime agreement.
In a message sent to VP SAARCCCI,Pak chapter Iftikahr Ali Malik, theSCCI chief said that it was a bold andhistoric decision by Pakistan to simplifythe cumbersome procedure for thegrant of visa with a view to promotepeople to people contact.
He said that the epoch making de-cision would greatly help enhance tradeand boost business activities betweenthe two countries.He said that multipleentry on one year visa with exemption
from police report and increase in thenumber of cities for visa holders wouldensure smooth and frequent exchangeof traders delegations of private sec-tors.
Vikramjit said that the visa regimeagreement singed by the former IndianExternal Affairs Minister SM Krishnaand Pak Interior Minister RehmanMalik would prove a milestone in theeconomic history of the either countryfor further cementing Pak-India rela-tions besides strengthening trade in ad-dition to taking full benefits oftechnical expertise in different fields.
He said that free movement of thebusiness community would not onlyhelp improve the business environmentbut also positively affect the entire re-gion of South Asia.
The SCCI Chief said that Pakistanand India,with the support of their pri-vate sector, have taken historic steps tonormalize bilateral trade relations.South Asia is the fastest growing regionin the world but also one of the least in-tegrated while the region’s trade withthe rest of the world is growing rapidly,intra-regional trade is merely 5 per centof its total trade, he added.
Vikramjit said that despite beingnatural trade and investment partners,the volume of trade between Pakistanand India, the two largest economies ofthe region, had been extremely low. Hesaid that for instance, total trade be-tween Brazil and Argentina amountedto US$33 billion in 2010, almost 15times more than the current Pak-Indiatrade of little over US$2 billion. He said
that it was worth mentioning that Ar-gentina and Brazil too had a turbulentpast of war and fierce rivalry.
He said that bilateral trade betweenPakistan and India a couple of yearsago stood at an estimated US$1.83 bil-lion. India accounts for nearly 1.2 percent of Pakistan’s global exports, whilePakistan accounts for less than 0.9 per-cent of India’s global exports, he added.
Iftikhar Ali Malik said that the pri-vate sectors of either country had to playa key role in the prevailing situation forviable and sustainable better trade rela-tions for the welfare of people of the re-gion. He said opening of proper tradewithin the ambit of law between the twocountries would help check billions ofdollars of irregular and illegal trade(smuggling) through land and sea routes.
Pakistan’s decision to ratify visa regime hailed
18-Business Pages- 03 November_Layout 1 11/3/2012 4:41 AM Page 1
02
Saturday, 3 November, 2012
Major Gainers
COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVERUniLever Pak 9510.00 9985.50 9985.00 9985.30 475.30 100Island TextileXD 402.01 422.11 422.11 422.11 20.10 200Pak OilfieldsXD 414.09 431.50 414.00 429.50 15.41 1,586,200Sanofi-Aventis Pak 299.89 314.88 314.88 314.88 14.99 500Exide (PAK) 323.05 334.00 334.00 334.00 10.95 1,400
Major LosersBata (Pak) XD 1485.00 1410.75 1410.75 1410.75 -74.25 300Pak Gum & Chemical 197.86 187.97 187.97 187.97 -9.89 2,200ZIL Limited XD 119.77 113.79 113.79 113.79 -5.98 700Philip Morris Pak. 114.80 114.00 109.06 109.10 -5.70 9,300National FoodsXD 320.00 330.00 315.00 316.45 -3.55 4,700
Volume Leaders
Fauji Cement 6.44 6.99 6.45 6.94 0.50 49,093,000Dewan Cement 5.11 5.38 5.00 5.33 0.22 9,643,500Fatima Fertilizer Co 25.21 26.20 25.15 25.76 0.55 8,478,000Pace (Pak) Ltd. 2.91 3.14 2.99 3.04 0.13 8,392,500Maple Leaf Cement 10.13 10.74 10.19 10.35 0.22 7,284,500
Interbank RatesUS Dollar 95.7614UK Pound 154.2046Japanese Yen 1.1927Euro 123.4077
Dollar EastBUY SELL
US Dollar 95.10 95.70Euro 121.20 123.05Great Britain Pound 151.31 153.57Japanese Yen 1.1680 1.1855Canadian Dollar 94.69 96.61Hong Kong Dollar 12.07 12.31UAE Dirham 25.75 26.11Saudi Riyal 25.15 25.47Australian Dollar 97.50 100.41
Business
Bank Alfalah supports KSBL
by donating Rs 100m
KARACHI: Bank Alfalah has announced that itwill be supporting the Karachi School for Business& Leadership (KSBL) by donating Rs100 Millionto the Karachi Education Initiative (KEI), which isthe parent body of KSBL. Supporting meaningfulcommunity causes and serving its role as a sociallyresponsible corporation remains a key value forBank Alfalah. Further, within its wider communityinvestments, education is a focal area which theBank aspires to support, as part of its social gover-nance efforts in the country.Bank Alfalah’s Chief Executive Officer, Atif Bajwasaid, ‘We are pleased to play our part in strength-ening the objectives of KSBL, as education is a keypriority on the Bank’s corporate social responsibil-ity agenda as well. At Bank Alfalah we encourage atwo-pronged approach which incorporates finan-cial investment towards meaningful communitycauses coupled with employee volunteer pro-grams, in order to create measurable and sustain-able impact in our communities. We are optimisticthat initiatives such as KSBL will go a long way inimproving the standards of education in Pakistanand will help bring them closer to global bench-marks in the future.’
6th Pakistan Microfinance
Forum on December 5
KARACHI: 02 November, 2012 - SHAM-ROCK Conferences International has an-nounced the holding of the 6th AnnualPakistan Micro-finance Country Forum 2012to be held on 5 th of December, 2012 inKarachi. The theme of the forum will be “ ReStrategizing the Model - A New Face to Micro-finance in Pakistan ” and will include case-study discussions and face-to-facedeliberations.The annual forum has repeatedly attractedprominent experts, regulators, government of-ficials, NGOs, media and delegates from pres-tigious Pakistani & foreign Microfinanceinstitutions. The day-long conference will in-clude interactive sessions where eminentspeakers and practitioners will present case-studies, insights and recommendations on thelatest developments in this sector.Commenting on the annual series, Mr. MeninRodrigues, convener of the 6th Pakistan Mi-crofinance Conference 2012 said; “ The micro-finance sector is at a critical juncture in itsefforts towards reducing poverty, building ca-pacity at grassroots level, augmenting cottage
industry and creating jobs for the masses,with the aim to facilitate economic stability inPakistan.
PIA publish tender advertisement
KARACHI: PIA published tender advertisementfor the “Dry Lease of Five (05) Narrow Body andTwo (02) Wide Body Aircraft”. “Two Stage TwoEnvelope” tendering process has been adopted.Leading Leasing Companies in the aviation indus-try has participated in the tender. First Stage bidswere opened on October 31, 2012 in PIA Head Of-
fice Karachi. Bid opening meeting was also at-tended by representatives of union/associations ofPIA, Transparency International Pakistan andMinistry of Defence as observers.
KARACHI: Mr Muhammad Ali, North Habib Bank (HBL)
Business Head shaking hands with President PakGulf
Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan after signing an agreement
for opening of Habib bank Branch at the Centaurus Mall.
Mr Sajjad Baig Director Finance Tamimi Group is also
present at the occasion.
CORPORATE CORNER
ISLAMABAD
APP
THE Sensitive PriceIndicator (SPI) forthe week ended onNovember 1, for thelowest income group
up to Rs 8,000, registered de-crease of 0.27 per cent as com-pared to the previous week. TheSPI for the week under review inthe above mentioned group wasrecorded at 182.01 points against182.50 points registered in theprevious week, according to provi-sional figures of Pakistan Bureauof Statistics (PBS).
The weekly SPI has been com-puted with base 2007-2008=100,covering 17 urban centers and 53essential items for all incomegroups and combined.
The SPI for the combinedgroup decreased by 0.14 per centas it declined from 187.85 pointsin the previous week to 187.58points in the week under review.
As compared to the correspon-ding week of last year, the SPI forthe combined group in the weekunder review witnessed increaseof 5.57 percent.
As compared to the last week,the SPI for the income groupsfrom Rs.8001-12,000, 12,001-18,000, 18001-35,000 and aboveRs.35,000 decreased by 0.21 per-cent, 0.19 percent, 0.14 and 0.08
percent respectively.During the week under review
average prices of 17 items regis-tered decrease, while that of 7items increase with the remaining29 items’ prices unchanged.
The items which recorded de-crease in their average prices dur-ing the week under reviewincluded tomatoes, onions, pota-toes, garlic, vegetable ghee (loose),
gram pulse (washed), bananas,moong pulse (washed), cooking oil(tin), sugar, vegetable ghee (tin),masoor pulse (washed), bread(plain), gur, red chillies (powder),rice (irri-6) and mustard oil.
The items which registered in-crease in their prices includedchicken live (farm), tea (packet),egg hen (farm), firewood, wheatflour (bag), wheat and LPG(11 kgcylender).
The items with no change intheir average prices during theweek under review included ricebasmati (broken), beef, mutton,milk (fresh), curd, milk (pow-dered), mash pulse (washed), salt(powdered), cooked beef, cookeddal, tea (prepared), cigarettes,long cloth, shirting, lawn, geor-gette, sandal (gents), chappal(gents), sandal (ladies), electriccharges, gas charges (upto100m3), kerosene, energy savor(14 wats), washing soap, matchbox, petrol, diesel, telephone localcall and bath soap.
MCB, PRC clinch deal on
women empowermentKARACHI
STAFF REPORT
The MCB Bank would accept donations from its consumers for PinkRibbon Campaign (PRC), a project of Women Empowerment Group,said the bank in a statement issued Friday. It said these funds wouldbe used by the PRC to cover the cost of creating awareness about thehigh danger of breast cancer among Pakistani women. The two sideshave agreed that the MCB would accept donations for PRC from itscustomers. To this effect, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)was signed by Ali Mubashir Kazmi, Group Head of CBG, MCB Bankand Omer Aftab, CEO, PRC. Under the MoU, the bank would providea wide range of banking and financial services to its customers,through branch offices as well as through different electronic channels,including ATMs, internet banking, POS, Virtual Banking Channel(MCB Virtual Banking) and Call Centers etc. enabling them to donatefor a just cause for women empowerment. The bank would also dis-seminate information about the PRC to its customers so that they areconvinced that their donation is not going waste. The customers will-ing to make donations to PRC through MCB Alternate Delivery Chan-nels may donate the same by logging on to their respective channelsand selecting the Campaign as beneficiary to make donations. Uponmaking donations by the customers, the MCB shall transfer the entiredonations in real time to PRC. The PRC accepts funds through variousmodes including donations and Zakat. The primary goal of PRC is toserve the community. It is run on the concept of equality and social re-sponsibility, implemented through a cross subsidization model.
SPI-based weekly inflation falls
KARACHI
STAFF REPORT
Securities and Exchange Commission ofPakistan (SECP) ordered an independentstudy to analyze the role of stock exchangesas well as the apex regulator, the SECP it-self, in the 2008 stock market crises.
An independent consultant ShamimAhmed Khan has been hired in view ofmaintaining transparency in the study re-port that would analyze the role of the regu-lator and the management of stockexchanges and other shareholders.
The study of market crises entailing longterm negative impact for the market needsto be carried out for helping SECP in its pol-icy formulation regarding ensuring adequatelevels of transparency and general develop-ments of the capital markets of Pakistan.
Addressing a press conference in Islam-abad Friday, the SECP spokesman ImranGhaznavi announced that the apex regulatorof stock markets had hired the services ofKhan for analyzing the issue in greater de-tail.
Khan would prepare a report on thebackground, impact and recommendationsto avoid future recurrence of the 2008 stockmarket crises in Pakistan. He would identifythe factors leading to issues observed in thePakistani securities market in 2008 and an-alyze the correlation of market movementwith trends in the global market.
The study would also evaluate the ra-
tional for placing a floor on the share pricesof listed securities w.e.f. August 27, 2008(the Floor) in terms of Force Majeure Regu-lations of the Regulations Governing RiskManagement for Karachi Stock Exchange(KSE), Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) and Is-lamabad Stock Exchange (ISE) respectively.
It would also analyze the role of SECP inthe decision to impose the floor and the sub-sequently remove the Floor on December 15,2008.
Khan would also present the review ofthe imposition of the Floor on the shareprices in the market and on the market par-ticipants and shareholders and determinethe extent to which any market participantbenefited or was disadvantaged by the impo-sition of Floor as the case may be.
He would examine the events which tookplace during the imposition of the Floor,and the subsequent measures taken to bringregulatory and operational reforms for en-hancing transparency and investor protec-tion.
He would also examine whether the Cen-tral Depository Company (CDC) played therole of a frontline regulatory of the deposi-tory system.
Khan has served as Chairman SECP dur-ing April 1997 to March 2000.
The study would help SECP in assessinghow our markets are currently poised incomparison to the year 2008 and in identi-fying areas which require special focus ofthe regulator.
SBP to publish
bank-wise ECR dataKARACHI
STAFF REPORT
The central bank has decided to publishbank-wise data on the Excess Cash Re-serves (ECR) maintained by the banksover and above the minimum requiredCash Reserve Requirement (CRR).The move, the State Bank said, is aimedat incentivizing the banks that, the regu-lator believes, would bring more effi-ciency in their money market operations.The central bank said this data would bedisclosed with a lag of about one month;and would help in differentiating be-tween the relative performances of vari-ous banks in their money marketoperations.The bank observed that the ECR not onlyadversely impacts smooth functioning ofthe interest rate corridor but also has im-plications on the banks’ own liquiditymanagement.“The SBP expects that dissemination ofthis data will bring more transparencyand efficiency in the domestic moneymarket,” said the bank.The said data on bank-wise ECR wouldbe placed online on the SBP’s website.It may be pointed out that the State Bankhas been publishing the consolidatedweekly data on ECR of the banks sinceDecember 2011 to bring more efficiencyin the latter’s money market operations.“The above mentioned decision of SBP isin continuation of that initiative,” theregulator added.
sECP orders event-wise studyof 2008 stock market crash
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