Category: Industry

Pakistan Stock Brokers Association (PSBA) filed a Constitutional Petition (CP) in the High Court of Sindh against the Futures Eligibility Criteria, for Selection of Securities Eligible for Trading in Deliverable Futures Contract (DFC) and Cash Settled Futures Contract (CSF) Market, as notified by the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with prior approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

The first hearing of the said CP was held today at the Sindh High Court.

“The Honorable Court has very kindly granted interim order to make the concerned notice inoperative to the extent that it discriminates against entities that have obtained a stay order from the Court,” said a statement issued by PSBA.

Among other grounds, it was pleaded before the Honorable Court that the Respondents have acted in violation of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, as they have no right to restrict any specific securities eligible for trading in the deliverable futures contract and cash-settled futures contract markets, under the guise that such entities have invoked their constitutional right of protection by assailing any illegal action in a court of law.

“The PSBA will remain dedicated to the betterment of the economy, promotion of the stock brokerage industry, and protection of the rights of its members,” added the statement.

 

Source: Pro Pakistani

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Customs (Policy), Syed Hamid Ali, categorically denied any possibility of any new amnesty scheme for the legalization of non-duty paid smuggled cars plying in the country.

While briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, FBR Member Customs (Policy), Syed Hamid Ali, informed that the customs will launch a major crackdown against showrooms and warehouses selling non-duty paid smuggled vehicles.

The Committee discussed in detail the issue regarding the missing of non-duty paid auctioned vehicles. Member Customs explained the facts and background of the matter. After a detailed discussion, the Committee recommended that all provincial secretaries of Excise and Taxation departments may be called in the next meeting of the Committee.

Chairman FBR Asim Ahmad said on Thursday that the Directorate General Anti-Benami has filed 55 references of benami cases with the Anti-Benami Adjudicating Authority against 500 cases framed against owners of benami properties.

The FBR chairman informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance here on Thursday at the Parliament House that out of 500 benami cases, proceedings have been dropped in 120 cases.

In 55 cases, references have been filed with the adjudication authorities. In one case, Anti-Benami Initiative (ABI) Zone-I, Islamabad confiscated a luxury vehicle from a residential premise in the capital.

To a query, Asim Ahmad stated that the FBR’s anti-benami directorate has not issued notices to the yarn merchants of Faisalabad, but the case may be related to anti-money laundering (AML) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The chairman FBR briefed the Committee about the action taken by the FBR on the implementation of Benami Act. He said that 500 cases were identified out of which 55 references have been launched.

The Committee members expressed their concerns over the process of execution of Benami Act by the FBR at ground level. The Committee noted that Anti-Money Laundering Act’s rules and regulations need to be reviewed for its effective implementation.

The chairman FBR assured the Committee that the FBR always puts taxpayer facilitation as its top most priority. A robust internal control mechanism is in place to ensure transparency.

Policy of non-interactive system-based disposal of business is followed i.e. all kinds of notices are issued electronically and bearing Bar Code; therefore, all possible measures have been put in place to arrest the incidence of harassment.

The Committee unanimously directed that the FBR should launch an awareness campaign for the public about the rules of AML and Benami Act.

The Committee discussed the issue regarding missing of non-duty paid auctioned vehicles. Member, Customs informed the Committee that the subject news item has been published distorting the facts in without seeking any input/feedback from the concerned department, which shows complete lack of journalistic ethics on part of reporting.

He explained the facts and background of the matter. After detailed discussion, the Committee recommended that all Provincial Secretaries of Excise and Taxation departments may be called in the next meeting of the Committee.

The Committee discussed the matter pertaining to the levy of Regulatory Duty (RD) on stationery items (Led Pencil).

The Member, Customs said that the Pencil falling under PCT heading 6909.1000 attracted CD @ 20%, ST @ 17%, ACD 7%, WHT 5.5%. during the budget exercise of 2021-22. Various proposals from local pencil manufacturers were received for the imposition of RDS on the pencils in order to promote import substation and protection of local industry.

The manufacturers requested to impose Regularity Duty (RD) @ 10% on imports of pencils, pens and other stationary items to save the domestic industry. According to them, stationary sectors were providing employment to 20,000 skilled workers, using precision advanced engineering equipment, and there are five manufacturing units in Pakistan out of which 2 have been closed, one unit is operating partially and two units are in operation. However, during the subsequent meeting of the Tarif Policy Board, the rate of RD was enhanced from 10% to 20%.

The Committee noted that a levy of Regulatory Duty (RD) on any item should be considered in light of the requirements at a local level. The Committee recommended that local manufacturers may be invited in the next meeting for final directions to the FBR in that regard.

The Committee discussed the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2020, clause by clause, but couldn’t complete its reading due to shortage of time, and decided that further discussion will be carried out in today’s meeting.

The meeting was attended by Dr Aisha Ghous Pasha, Faheem Khan, Ali Pervaiz, Jamil Ahmed Khan, Dr Nafisa Shah, Amjad Ali Khan, and Makhdoom Syed Samiul Hassan Gillani, MNAs and Minister for Finance and Revenue, besides senior officers from the Ministry of Finance and Revenue and the FBR.

 

Source: Pro Pakistani

The sixth meeting of the Uzbek-Pakistani Intergovernmental Commission on Trade-Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation (hereinafter – IGC) was held in Tashkent on July 14, 2021.
The IGC meeting was co-chaired from the Uzbekistan side by Mr. Sardor Umurzakov, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade, and from the Pakistani side by Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser for Commerce and Investment to Prime Minister.
Parties recognized the importance of closer collaboration for post-COVID recovery to sustainably recover through technology, innovation, and economic partnership, aiming at increased economic diversification, sustainable growth, building supply chain resilience, and robust regulatory environments.
It was agreed to develop interbank cooperation to create favorable conditions for the further development of trade. It was agreed to finalize the bilateral Preferential Trade Agreement within 3 months, which will become a legal impetus for further increase in trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Pakistan.
Both countries agreed to organize Uzbek-Pakistani specialized exhibitions (Made in Uzbekistan/Made in Pakistan) in Tashkent and Islamabad to promote a wide range of export goods and to facilitate the attraction of leading companies in pharmaceuticals, textile, leather, production of construction materials, and agriculture industries, and transport and logistics services of both countries.
It also agreed that the trans-Afghan corridor, which connects Uzbekistan and Pakistan, will play an important role in enhancing bilateral trade between the two countries. Both sides agreed to expedite the implementation of the project.
The co-chairs expressed satisfaction in holding the inaugural Joint Business Council meeting on the sidelines of the Joint Ministerial Commission meeting.
The parties agreed to deepen partnership in the field of industrial cooperation, including organizing joint ventures in the field of the textile industry, assembly of agricultural machinery, processing and packaging of fruit and vegetable products.
It was agreed to deepen cooperation in the energy and mineral sector, agriculture, transportation and communication, labor, education, tourism, science and technology, technoparks, housing and communal services, intercity collaborations, standards, meteorology, culture, and youth affairs.
It was also agreed to form Joint Working Groups on Agriculture, IT, Education, and Mineral Sectors. Mr. Umarzakov thanked Pakistan for taking the relationship with Uzbekistan to a strategic partnership level.

Source: Pro Pakistani

The Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) of Pakistan has issued its ‘State of the Regulated Petroleum Industry’ report for the fiscal year 2019-20.
The report describes the challenges and performance for the oil sector, and the Natural Gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), and compressed natural gas (CNG) sectors.

Oil Sector
Pakistan’s oil sector has faced major challenges due to the unprecedented crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the fiscal year 2019-20 (FY20), the import of crude oil and petroleum products had declined by 26.42 percent and 7.60 percent to 6.77 million tons and 8.10 million tons respectively as compared to the previous year’s imports of 9.21 million tons and 8.77 million tons.
Accordingly, the refineries’ productions had declined by 20.43 percent to 9.86 million tons as compared to 12.38 million tons, and consumption by 11.98 percent to 17.63 million tons as compared to 20.03 million tons in FY 2018-19.
PARCO had held its position at the top among all the local refineries in the production of petroleum products during FY 2019-20 with a 29 percent share (2.85 million tons) of total production, followed by BPPL with 22 percent (2.13 million tons), ARL & NRL with 16 percent (1.56 million tons) each, and PRL with 12 percent (1.21 million tons).
The product-wise production shows that HSD had the highest share of 40 percent (3.79 million tons) in the total refineries production, followed by FO with over 23 percent (2.22 million tons), and MS with around 21 percent (1.98 million tons) during FY 2019-20. These three POL products had accounted for around 85 percent (7.99 million tons) share in total refineries’ production.
The consumption of petroleum products in the power sector had suffered a huge decline of 43.5 percent to 1.52 million tons during FY 2019-20 as compared to 2.76 million tons during FY 2018-19 due to the shifting of power generation from FO to RLNG, followed by the government where consumption had declined by 10 percent, transport by 5.6 percent, and industry by 5.5 percent.
In the marketing arena, energy products had a change in the market share as compared to the previous year. PSO had been the major shareholder with the highest market share and had gained around three percent (from 41 percent to 44 percent) during FY 2019-20.
Hascol had lost around four percent market share from 10 to 6 percent.
Natural Gas
Natural gas is a major contributing fuel to Pakistan’s energy mix. The demand for natural gas, particularly by the residential, fertilizer, and power sectors has also increased over the years, putting more pressure on the limited indigenous gas supplies.
The indigenous gas production had declined by 10 percent. During the year in concern, it had come down to 2,138 MMCFD from 2,379 MMCFD in the previous year. On the other hand, gas consumption had declined by six percent, coming down to 3,714 MMCFD from 3,969 MMCFD.
The deficit between production and consumption had been met partially through RLNG imports whose share in natural gas supplies has increased from 27 percent to 29 percent during the current financial year.
Pakistan has a huge transmission network of 13,452 km and a distribution network of 177,029 km gas pipelines that provide natural gas to the domestic, industrial, commercial, and transport sectors.
The gas utility companies have expanded their transmission and distribution networks to cater to the demands of their new consumers. The SNGPL and the SSGCL had extended their transmission networks by 190 km and 72 km respectively during FY 2019-20. Similarly, the SNGPL had extended its distribution network by 5,731 km, and the SSGCL by 527 km during the same period.
The SNGPL had connected 271,228 new consumers during FY 2019-20, reaching a total of 7.0 million consumers in its network. Additionally, the SSGCL has added 95,011 new connections, making a total of 3.1 million consumers in its network. Overall, there had been 10.12 million natural gas consumers in the country by the end of the financial year 2019-20.
The main consumer of natural gas had been the power sector, consuming 33 percent (1,198 MMCFD), followed by the domestic sector with 24 percent (888 MMCFD), fertilizer — 21 percent (779 MMCFD), General Industry — nine percent (327 MMCFD), and captive power — eight percent (290 MMCFD) of the total gas consumed during FY 2019-20.
The province-wise gas consumption shows that the Punjab’s share had been 56 percent (1,471 MMCFD), Sindh — 33 percent (874 MMCFD), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) — nine percent (249 MMCFD), and Balochistan — two percent (48 MMCFD) of the total gas consumption during the year under review.
The supply of natural gas supply during the year had been 4,052 MMCFD and was mainly contributed by the major gas fields Mari, Sui, Uch, Qadirpur, Kandhkot, and Maramzai. Of the total supplies, 1,057 MMCFD of gas had been supplied by the gas fields/producers directly to their consumers and the remaining through gas utility companies.
Sindh’s share in gas supply had been 45 percent (1,344 MMCFD), whereas KP, Balochistan, and Punjab had supplied 12 percent (368 MMCFD), 11 percent (335 percent), and three percent (91 MMCFD) respectively. The remaining 29 percent (857 MMCFD) of gas supplied was imported LNG.
The demand-supply gap during FY 2019-20 had been 1,349 MMCFD, which is expected to rise to 4,229 MMCFD by FY 2030-31.
LPG Sector
The LPG share in Pakistan’s primary energy supplies is around one percent. The current size of the LPG market is around 1,149,352 MT/Annum, which is 8.28 percent higher than last year’s 1,061,448 MT/Annum.
A major increase in the LPG consumption of around 19 percent (from 415,368 to 492,968 M. Tons) had been observed in the commercial sector, followed by the domestic sector, which had increased by six percent (from 445,497 to 472,056 M. Tons) during FY 2019-20 as compared to FY 2018-19.
LPG consumption in the industrial sector had declined by eight percent (from 200,583 to 184,328 M. Tons) during the same period. Refineries, gas-producing fields, and imports are three main sources of LPG supply in the country.
The production of refineries and gas fields had accounted for 68 percent of the LPG consumption, whereas the remaining 32 percent had been imported during FY 2019-20. LPG supplies had increased by four percent during FY 2019-20, mainly on account of a 39 percent increase (from 252,467 to 350, 096 M. Tons) in LPG imports as compared to last year.
Conversely, the supplies from refineries and fields had declined by 20 percent (from 201,322 to 161,434 M. Tons) and two percent (from 607,108 to 593,061 M. Tons) respectively during the same period.
There had been 11 LPG producers and 208 LPG marketing companies with more than 7,400 authorized distributors by the end of FY 2019-20. Furthermore, there had been 22 operational LPG auto refueling stations within the country.
The OGRA has also pre-qualified 56 LPG equipment manufacturing companies as authorized manufacturers of LPG equipment.

LNG Sector
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is natural gas that is cooled and converted into liquid at a temperature of -162°C (−260°F) and atmospheric pressure. Liquefaction reduces fuel volume by about 600 times and allows it to be stored and transported in specially designed vessels.
In an effort to bridge the widening natural gas demand-supply gap in the country, the first LNG re-gasification terminal had been commissioned in March 2016 and the second LNG terminal was commissioned in April 2018.
The government has mandated the state-owned companies Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) to import LNG on its behalf. PSO has signed a Government-to-Government contract with Qatar Gas for a period of 15 years, whereas PLL has shorter-term LNG contracts with Gunvor and Shell.
LNG imports during FY 2019-20 had declined by five percent quantum-wise to 857 MMCFD from 901 MMCFD in FY 2018-19, but its share in the overall natural gas supplies had increased from 27 percent last year to 29 percent as of now.
CNG Sector
The OGRA has played a vital role in the promotion of CNG in the transport sector and the setting of higher standards for the safe operation of CNG stations.
The use of CNG as an alternate fuel in the transport sector has helped to reduce air pollution to a considerable extent, which also includes excessive suspended particulate matter (SPM) emitted from public transport vehicles and private vehicles.
Natural gas consumption in the transport sector has gradually declined over the years due to dwindling indigenous gas production. During FY 2019-20, the natural gas consumption in the transport sector had declined from 178 MMCFD in FY 2018-19 to 127 MMCFD.
The OGRA has always prioritized safety and quality with regard to the certification of local and foreign CNG equipment.
Furthermore, in order to promote the indigenous production of CNG equipment, the OGRA has granted permission for the manufacturing/assembling of CNG Compressor, Dispenser, and Conversion kits for vehicles subject to the conformity of the laid down international technical standards.

Source: Pro Pakistani

A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic affairs was held on Wednesday at Parliament House.

The meeting was chaired by Senator Talha Mahmood. Besides committee members, officials of FBR ( Federal Board of Revenue ) and SECP (Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan ) also participated in the committee’s meeting.

“The Tax Laws Amendment Bill 2021” and “The Companies Amendment Bill, 2021” were reviewed in the meeting. Consideration of “The Corporate Restructuring Companies Amendment Bill, 2021″ was recessed till the next meeting.

The Chief Tax Officer FBR briefed the committee on the Tax Laws Amendment Bill, 2021 for the new financial year. Expressing displeasure over the non-presence of the Chairman FBR at the meeting, the Chairman committee summoned the Chairman FBR in the next meeting of the Committee. Chairman of the committee, Senator Talha Mahmood sought details of the “Tax Laws Amendment Bill, 2021″ from the FBR.

The officials from FBR told the committee that the Tax Law Ordinance has been made part of the Finance Bill 2021. The chairman of the committee said that “no bill can be wiped blindly”. Senator Saleem Mandviwala asked, “which recommendations of the committee have been rejected in the finance bill?”

The committee sought a briefing from the FBR at its next meeting on the senators’ recommendations regarding the Finance Bill 2021.

The committee also received a section-wise briefing from SECP on The Companies Amendment Bill, 2021. The Executive Director of the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) gave a detailed briefing to the committee on “The Companies Amendment Bill 2021”. The Chairman committee, along with the committee members, expressed dissatisfaction with the words in the section on “Effects of Memorandum and Articles”. The chairman of the committee recommended correcting the wordings of the particular section.

While giving a briefing, the Executive Director SECP underlined that the voting power of the members in the company has been reduced from 10% to 5% for bringing a resolution. The condition of revealing the name of Father/Husband is being removed in the amended bill, he added.

SECP officials underscored that a company with a capital of Rs. 1 million is proposed to be exempted from unaudited financial statements, while the committee has recommended exemption from filing of a company with a capital of up to Rs 3 million.

In the amendment bill, the number of 56 forms is being limited to 26 forms. Chairman SECP said that the company with 1 billion turnovers will be included in the startup while concession and privileges will also be provided to a company having a turnover of 1 billion.

The Chairman Committee and the Committee Members objected to some sections of the Companies Amendment Bill,2021 and directed the SECP officials to reappear at the next meeting with the amended bill, while the discussion on “The Corporate Restructuring Companies Amendment Bill, 2021″ was put off till the next meeting.

Addressing the Chairman SECP, the Chairman of the Committee reiterated, providing whatever assistance is required for the refinement of the institution.

The committee was attended by Senator Sherry Rehman, Senator Saleem Mandviwala, Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Senator Faisal Subzwari, Senator Saadia Abbasi.

FBR officials, Chairman SECP, Executive Directors SECP, Director State Bank of Pakistan also participated in the meeting.

 

Source: Pro Pakistani

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) took notice of HASCOL’s reported accounts for the period ending June 30, 2019 during October 2019.

In this regard, the SECP has diligently followed its requisite internal protocols in compliance with its mandated role and responsibility. However, being the apex corporate regulator of the country, SECP has to conclude its proceedings after following due process as envisaged under the law.

The SECP does not comment on its regulatory actions until they are finalized and orders are issued, at which stage they are published on its website without any exception. However, recently some misreporting in the print media has been undertaken that is devoid of facts and has been published without seeking SECP’s version.

The SECP has been and continues to remain vigilant and proactive in swiftly dealing with any regulatory violations that fall within its ambit.

SECP greatly respects and values its ongoing relationship with the media which almost invariably reports on SECP’s activities in a measured, responsible and fair manner. However, it expects that reporting on matters currently under consideration of SECP should not be based on conjecture or incorrect hearsay.

Source: Pro Pakistani