Tuesday, 14 august, 2012

FPCCI for restoring facilityto adjust accumulatedcarry forward amount

ISLAMABAD

aPP

The Federation ofPakistan Chambers ofCommerce andIndustry (FPCCI) hasurged the ChairmanFederal Board ofRevenue (FBR) that thetax payers be allowedto adjust theiraccumulated carryforward amount ofinput tax In a statement issued here on Monday, FPCCIPresident haji Fazal Kadir Khan Sherani of said thatafter harmonization of sales tax rate in Finance Act2012, the higher rate regime was eliminated which wasgenerally welcomed. however, it has been observedthat persons having accumulated carry forward amountin their sales tax returns pertaining to previous highersales tax rates regime, were not provided any relief forits adjustment. he added that previously suchtaxpayers were excluded from the applicability ofsection 8B of Sales Tax Act vide S.R.O 647(I) 2007dated June 27, 2007 but after doing away with thehigher Sales Tax rates regime in the current budget,carry forward cannot be adjusted since condition of 8Bis now applicable on them. Consequently such taxpayers would be unnecessarily burdened to pay 10%sales tax despite of their accumulated carry forwardamounts, pertaining to higher tax rates (upto 22%)regime, available to them, he informed.

Google plans 4,000 layoffs at Motorola

KARACHI

aFP

Internet giant Googleon Monday said itplans to lay off about4,000 employees atMotorola, a cellphonemaker it purchased inMay, in order to returnthe company to profitability. “While we expect thisstrategy to create new opportunities and help returnMotorola’s mobile devices unit to profitability, weunderstand how hard these changes will be for theemployees concerned,” a company spokesperson toldAFP. According to The New York Times, thereorganization plan calls for laying off about 20 percentof Motorola’s workforce and closing a third of its 94offices worldwide. About two-thirds of the affected4,000 jobs will be lost outside of the United States,according to the report. The company plans to leaveunprofitable markets, stop making low-end devices andreduce the number of cell phone models it is producing,the paper said. The Google spokesperson said help willbe provided to those whose jobs were being cut.“Motorola is committed to helping them through thisdifficult transition and will be providing generousseverance packages, as well as outplacement services tohelp people find new jobs,” the spokesperson said.

Overseas Pakistanisremit $ 1.2 billion

KARACHI

aPP

Overseas Pakistanis remitted anamount of $1,204.71 million in July2012 showing an impressive growth of9.89 percent or $ 108.40 million whencompared with $ 1,096.31 millionreceived during the same month of thelast fiscal year (FY12). According toSBP here Monday, the inflow ofremittances during July 2012 fromSaudi Arabia, UAe, USA, UK, GCCcountries (including Bahrain, Kuwait,Qatar and Oman) and eU countriesamounted to $349.66 million, $240.54million, $215.30 million, $148.49million, $140.36 million and $30.83million respectively compared with theinflow of $291.83 million, $257.65million, $194.87 million, $118.55million,$116.45 million and $32.59million respectively in July 2011.Remittances received from Norway,Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japanand other countries during the lastmonth amounted to $79.53 million asagainst $84.37 million received in thesame month of the last fiscal year(FY12). The continued impressivegrowth in workers’ remittances wasthe result of the efforts made byPakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI)in collaboration with otherstakeholders to facilitate bothOverseas Pakistanis and their familiesback home. Since its inception, PRIhas taken a number of steps toenhance the flow of remittancesthrough formal channels whichinclude: (a) preparation of nationalstrategies on remittances (b) taking allnecessary steps to implement theoverall strategy (c) playing the advisoryrole for financial sector in terms ofpreparing a business case, relationshipbuilding with overseas correspondents,creating separate efficient remittancepayment highways and (d) becoming anational focal point for overseasPakistanis through round the clock callcentre (021-111-222-774) with toll freelines, separate web site etc.

LAHORE

aFP

Asian markets mostly fell on Monday as dealersawaited fresh stimulus drives by the central banks ofthe United States, europe and China, while Japanesedata showed growth slowing.

Tokyo ended flat, edging down 0.07 percent, or 6.29points, to 8,885.15, Seoul fell 0.72 percent, or 13.96points, to 1,932.44 but Sydney gained 0.14 percent, or6.0 points, to close at 4,283.3. In the afternoon hongKong fell 0.36 percent while Shanghai was down 0.58percent. The losses come after global shares enjoyedbroad gains last week on expectations the europeanCentral Bank will restart its bond-buying scheme to sup-port under-pressure economies such as Spain and Italy.

There are also hopes the US Federal Reserve willunveil its own drive to pump cash into the economy,while another batch of poor trade figures from Chinaon Friday increased the likelihood Beijing will also in-tervene to kickstart growth.

On Monday morning Japan released data showing

its economy grew just 0.3 percent in April-June fromthe previous quarter, the fourth consecutive rise but aslower pace than before. The figures were significantlyweaker than market expectations for a 0.7 percent in-crease, as exports slowed due to falling global demand,especially from the debt-wracked eurozone. It alsomarked a sharp contrast from a brisk 1.3 percent in-crease in the January-March period. In afternoon forextrade the euro stood at $1.2277 and 96.10 yen, downfrom $1.2291 and 96.16 yen on Friday in New York.

The dollar bought 78.28 yen, from 78.25.“There are increased hopes of further easing in re-

sponse to the China data on Friday,” said Stan Shamu,market strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne. “Thisramped up toward the close of the US (on Friday) andhas filtered through to Asian trade,” he told Dow JonesNewswires. On Wall Street the Dow ended 0.32 per-cent higher, the S&P 500 added 0.22 percent and theNasdaq edged up 0.07 percent.

Oil was up in afternoon trade, with New York’smain contract, light sweet crude for delivery in Sep-tember gaining 48 cents to $93.35 a barrel and Brent

North Sea crude for September delivery advancing 78cents to $113.73. Gold was at $1,622.40 at 0640 GMT,from $1,609.15 on Friday. In other markets: Welling-ton rose 0.48 percent, or 17.17 points, to 3,594.96.Fletcher Building was up 2.2 percent at NZ$6.54 andTelecom Corp climbed 0.6 percent to NZ$2.71. Taipeiwas flat, edging down 4.82 points to 7,436.3. TaiwanSemiconductor Manufacturing Co was 0.85 percenthigher at Tw$82.7 while leading smartphone makerhTC lost 3.23 percent at Tw$240.0.

ISLAMABAD

Tayyab HussaIN

Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) Mon-day recommended the Federal Board of Revenue(FBR) Chairman, the top revenue collecting agencyof the country, to make a foolproof system for thetransfer of general-sales-tax (GST) collected onsale of pre-paid cards by five Cellular Companies,PTCL, wireless phone and Internet Companies.

The recommendation has been made after a taxevasion scam surfaced after the national account-ability bureau (NAB) launched investigation intotax-evasion amounting to Rs 47 billion against fivemajor telecom operators.

This allegation however has time and againbeen denied by telecom operators as well as theFBR. The NAB also moved an application with theapex court to put FBR officials’ names on the exitcontrol list (eCL).

In a letter sent by TIP advisor Syed Adil Gi-lani to FBR Chairman Ali Arshad hakeem, TIP

said the prepaid cards were being sold by five Cel-lular Companies, PTCL, wireless phone and In-ternet Companies to outlets/shopkeepers in cashby all these companies, and then the outlets sellthem to public. “The FBR may make a policy, anddirect all Cellular Companies, PTCL, wirelessphone and internet providers to get the pre-paidcards stamped as GST collected, and numberedby the FBR prior to sale. These companies shalldeposit the 19.5% GST when they take the deliv-ery of pre-paid cards duly stamped and num-bered by FBR,” suggested the TIP.

Gilani said through introduction of this newsystem, the leakage of GST on prepaid cards willbe stopped and the FBR was expected not onlyto collect 100% GST on prepaid cards (in theTIP suggested system estimated to be 8-10 bil-lon monthly).

“This will also enable savings on loss of bankinterest on the delayed deposit of GST of 30 daysas per current procedure, which will add billions ofrupees revenue to the exchequer”.

Asian markets mostly down, dealers await stimulus

LAHORE

ONLINE

The Lahore Chamber of Commerceand Industry (LCCI) Monday tooka strong exception to the Oil andGas Regulatory Authority (OGRA)for making around 15 per cent in-

crease in gas tariff without any prior noticeto the industry.

In a statement issued here, the LCCIPresident Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that it

would cast devastating repercussions onlocal industry and oust the export-ori-ented industries from the internationalexport market. The LCCI President said

that the raise incorporated in the industrialgas bills for the month of July has createdmultiple problems for the industrialists asthe authorities kept them in the darknessabout the hike and resultantly they could

not include it into their cost.The LCCI President said that when

the government functionaries or Minis-ters visit LCCI, they always vow to takethe private sector on board on all fu-

ture decisions but it is very unfortu-nate this time they did not bother

to consult the LCCI or any othersector-specific association

while jacking up the gas tar-iff.

Irfan Qaiser Sheikhsaid that the impact of this

increase would be much bigger than the expectation of the government whoshould avoid any such decision keeping in view the economic scenario inthe country.

Sheikh said that Rs 100 MMBTU increase in the gas tariff will put extraburden on cash starved industry therefore the OGRA authorities should im-mediately withdraw this raise.

The LCCI President said that if the OGRA authorities fail to take thisback, there are a number of associations who would be moving court againstthis unilateral decision. “By making such decisions, the OGRA is not doingany service to the industry but actually the people are opening up gate forlitigation,” he said. he said that at a time when all the governments in theworld were facilitating their respective private sectors, the situation in Pak-istan is the other way round and various government departments weretightening noose around the private sector.

While quoting the example of textile sector, the LCCI President said thatit is one of the most value-added and export-oriented sectors in Pakistan,which accounts for more than 60percent of total exports ofthe country. 95 per cent ofits inputs are locally pro-duced and by making en-ergy out of their reach,government is in fact curb-ing the use of local in-puts.” he said that even theslightest raise in the cost ofproduction, at this criticaljuncture, would, therefore,spell doom and oust Pakistanimerchandise from the interna-tional export market which woulddeprive the exchequer of much-needed valuable foreign exchangeto the tune of billions of dollars.

TIP floats proposals to FBRfor bringing telecom, internetcompanies under GST net

‘Gas and oil price hike to bringmore disappointment for industry’

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02

Tuesday, 14 August, 2012

Major Gainers

COMPAny OPen HIGH lOW ClOSe CHAnGe TuRnOVeRColgate Palmolive 1313.43 1359.00 1275.00 1359.00 45.57 300Bata (Pak) Limited 716.00 751.80 750.00 750.00 34.00 450Pak Oilfields 400.41 420.43 406.50 419.92 19.51 932,800Mithchells Fruit 350.00 367.50 367.50 367.50 17.50 100Pak Petroleum 205.09 215.34 213.25 215.34 10.25 1,895,400

Major LosersUnilever Food 2825.00 2750.00 2700.00 2750.00 -75.00 40Indus Motor Company 267.01 268.50 260.00 260.75 -6.26 23,000Exide (PAK) XD 246.08 257.00 240.00 240.89 -5.19 9,400MCB Bank Ltd. 185.31 184.75 179.10 180.65 -4.66 1,118,400Atlas Battery Ltd. 267.90 267.00 256.00 264.08 -3.82 16,100

Volume Leaders

K.E.S.C. 4.27 5.27 4.36 5.27 1.00 19,577,500D.G.K.Cement 47.13 49.48 48.50 49.17 2.04 17,637,500Bank Al-Falah 17.60 17.32 16.60 16.99 -0.61 14,662,500Fauji Cement 5.99 6.40 6.17 6.20 0.21 13,346,000Maple Leaf Cement 7.54 8.15 7.72 7.79 0.25 10,357,000

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 94.5371UK Pound 148.0924Japanese Yen 1.2085euro 116.4413

Dollar EastBuy Sell

US Dollar 93.90 94.70Euro 115.09 116.92Great Britain Pound 146.38 148.66Japanese Yen 1.1855 1.2038Canadian Dollar 93.58 95.55Hong Kong Dollar 11.91 12.16UAE Dirham 25.43 25.80Saudi Riyal 24.93 25.25

Australian Dollar 97.84 100.82

Business

G20 to tackle rising food pricesISLAMABAD: The Group of 20 top economies will meetshortly to try and coordinate a response to soaring food prices,driven by drought and rising demand, the Financial Timesreported Monday. Over the weekend, US President BarackObama called on Congress to help farmers struggling with theworst US drought in half a century after the US Department ofAgriculture warned of sharply rising crop prices. The USDAsaid corn prices could hit $8.90 a bushel, up sharply on itsJuly estimate, with soybean at up to $15-17 a bushel, $2.00

more. Record temperatures in July left both crops badly damaged, pushing yields per acre forcorn to the lowest level since 1995 and, for soybeans, the lowest since 2003, it said. TheFinancial Times said concerns over the US harvest had prompted senior G20 and UnitedNations officials to consider an emergency meeting on food supply, with a conference call on theissue scheduled for August 27. The newspaper cited officials as saying the talks were not a signof panic but rather reflected the need to establish a consensus so as to avoid a repeat of the riotsand tensions sparked in 2007-08 by a spike in food prices. The Financial Times reported Fridaythat the head of the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization had urged the United States tosuspend its biofuel production programmes so as to ease the pressure on food resources. aPP

20th Palmolive Sindh Women’sSwimming Championship 2012KARACHI: Sindh Women’s Swimming Association will beceleberating 20 years with Palmolive Swimming Champi-onship on 25th & 26th August at Karachi Gymkhana Club.Organized by KWSA (Karachi Women’s Swimming Associa-tion) and sponsored by Colgate Palmolive (Pak) Ltd.

PTCl brings free 3G eVO uSB withevery new 3G eVO TAB!ISLAMABAD: In an exciting new offer, Pakistan Telecom-munication Company Limited (PTCL) brings absolutely free3G EVO USB on purchase of every new 3G EVO TAB, Pak-istan’s first 3G enabled smart phone Android Tablet.

The designers multi-brand storecelebrates Ramadan in dubai

KARACHI: A huge number of designers including renowned

names such as Ayesha Hashwani, Sonya Battla, Mina Has-

san, Zainab Sajid, Rizwan Beyg, Body Focus and upcoming

stars such as Saira Rizwan and Uzma Hai showcased their

latest Eid collections at the Fashion Fiesta held at The De-

signers multi-brand store.

CORPORATE CORNER

a cobranding agreement was signed between unilever Pakistan Limitedand Haier Pakistan Limited at a ceremony in Karachi which was attendedby key officials from both sides.

RICe yIeld uP 28% to reach 6.16 million tons in 2011-12

KARACHI

aFP

Growth in Japan’s export-driven economyslowed in the three months to June, official datashowed Monday, with the debt crisis in europecrimping demand in the key market.

Gross domestic product grew a worse-than-expected 0.3 percent in the second quarter fromthe previous three months, the Cabinet Officesaid, a fourth straight rise but much slower thanthe brisk 1.3 percent seen in January-March.

The data came in significantly lower thanmarket expectations for a 0.7 percent increase,as exports slowed and despite a ramp-up in gov-ernment spending since the March 11 quake-tsunami disaster last year.

Adding to the headwinds being faced by theworld’s number three economy is the strongyen, which has made the country’s exports lesscompetitive in overseas markets.

however, Japanese economic and fiscal pol-icy minister Motohisa Furukawa highlighted thegrowth of private demand to stress his view for

continued moderate growth. “The economy ofour country is trending upward, driven by do-mestic demand,” he said in a statement. “Withthe employment and earnings environment ex-pected to improve further the economy is ex-pected to maintain moderate growth for theJuly-September period and later,” he said.

“however, we need to pay careful attentionto downward risks for the global economy amidthe european fiscal debt crisis.” While officialsstressed the bright side of the data, private econ-omists sounded concerns as the Chinese econ-omy, which is a key driver of regional growth,suffers a deceleration while stimulus pro-grammes at home begin to expire. “In general,we can’t see any strength in the Japanese econ-omy, which was mainly sustained by govern-ment fiscal measures,” said hideki Matsumura,senior economist at Japan Research Institute.

The government has taken a series of stepsto spur growth, including offering incentives forfuel-efficient vehicle purchases and measures torebuild the northern region hit by the deadlyearthquake and tsunami.

a pledge signing ceremony was held at PsOhouse. speaking at the occasion PsO CEO andMD Naeem Mir called upon the PsO family tofulfill its duty towards their country and urgedthem to work even harder to take thecompany forward so that it stands in theleague of oil giants of the world.

a festive look of WaPDa House Lahore with a largeNational Flag across the building.

Eurozone crisis suffocateJapan’s growth

sME bank, Chairman, Ltd Majyd aziz visited head office of sME Leasing Ltdto congratulate Nadim anwar Khan as CEO and Mehnaz Kaludi and ateequr Rehman as Directors representing private sector. also in the picture isCompany secretary Tanveer ul bari.

ISE-10 index witnessesbullish trend

ISLAMABAD

aPP

The Islamabad Stock exchangewitnessed a bullish trend on Monday asthe ISe-10 index was up by 78.50 pointsto close at 3009.72 points. A total of181,500 shares were traded, which wereup by 167,800 shares as compared toprevious day’s trading of 13,700 shares.Out of 132 companies, share prices of 84companies recorded increase and thoseof 48 registered decrease. No companyremained stable. The share price ofPakistan Oilfields increased by Rs. 19.51,while that of Indus Motors Companydecreased by Rs. 6.26. Maple LeafCement, Fauji Cement Co. Ltd andD.G.Khan Cement remained the toptrading companies with 110,000, 70,000and 1,500 shares respectively.

Banks asked to issuefresh currency notes

KARACHI

aPP

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) haswarned the banks that it will imposefines at the rate of Rs One lakh (Rs1,00,000/-) per wrapped bundle (10packets) and Rs 50,000/- (Fiftythousand) per five packets (in serial) offresh currency notes found on sale inthe market. SBP has advised the banksnot to issue bundles of smalldenominations (Rs 10 to Rs 100) offresh currency notes, which were issuedto them by the field offices of SBPBanking Services Corporation (SBPBSC), as the same can be sold in themarket on premium. SBP said thatteams from field offices of SBP BSChave also been constituted to monitorthe supply of fresh currency notes tothe general public by banks.

ISLAMABAD

aPP

The overall production of rice has beenestimated to reach at 6.16 million tonsduring the year 2011-12, showing an in-crease of 28 percent over the production

of the same period of previous year, officialsources told APP.

“Following the remarkable increase in theproduction of the crop, the rice exports fromthe country are expected to grow considerablyduring the current fiscal (2012-13),” Officialsources in the Ministry of National Food Secu-rity and Research. They were of the view that itwas due to prudent and pro-farmer policies ofthe government that rice exports from Pakistanremained over US $ 2 billion each for the lastfour years consecutively.

Giving break up, the sources added thatduring 2007-08 Pakistan earned $ 1.836 bil-lion, in 2008-09, $ 1.983 billion, in 2009-10,$2.160 billion, in 2010-11 $.2.160 billion andin 2011-12 the country exported rice worth $2.061 billion. The sources said that in the year2009-10 rice was cultivated at an area of 2.88million hectares that resulted in the productionof 6.88 million tons, in 200-11 rice was culti-vated at an area of 2.37 million hectare that

produced 4.82 million tons and similarly in2011-12 rice was cultivated at an area of 2.57hectares with 6.16 million tons production.

They said that Rice is the major cash andimportant food crop of the country after wheatcrop and rice production comprises 40% ofbasmati (fine) and 60 percent of coarse types.

The government, they added during 2008-09 and 2009-10 intervened in order to supportfarmers as the rice price hit the rock bottom dueto bumper crop and plummeting internationalrice price. highlighting the major issues, thesources said that in view of good returns of therice crop, the sources said that there is spreadof basmati varieties in non-basmati zone.

“It may affect basmati rice exports in thelong run as the Basmati produced in non-bas-mati zone lacks aroma”, they observed.

The sources added that due to higher yieldof hybrid rice, farmers are also shifting the Irri-6 to hybrid rice and the hybrid rice quality islow compared to Irri types. They further saidthat rice crop is low in productivity and pro-duction is affected by water shortage and thereare enormous post harvest losses and issue ofAfflatoxin which affect crop value and qualityespecially in case of rice export.

They stressed the need for more invest-ments in general research and development in

rice for further increasing its production.The sources said that Pakistani basmati

rice was one of the top rice commodities allover the world, but the exports of this rich ricecommodity witnessed sharp decline of 14.87percent during the last fiscal year 2011-12 ascompared to the previous year.

The country could mange to export only$819.588 million basmati rice during 2011-12as compared to the exports of $962.703 millionduring the previous year.

According to Basmati Growers Association(BAG), Pakistan has an export potential of fourbillion dol-lars inbasmatir i c ew h i c hneeded to beexploited forearning for-eign currencyand help develop

economy.

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