KARACHI: NIT Chairman Tariq Iqbal Khan, has categorically rejected the market rumours that offloading from NIT-State Enterprise Fund has pulled down the market.

“The National Investment Trust has not offloaded shares of any value, even of a single penny, from its NIT-State Enterprise Fund (NIT-SEF) since its launch in January 2009,” Tariq Iqbal Khan stated while talking to the scribe on Friday.

The NIT-SEF is worth Rs20 billion and was launched with an aim of stabilizing market after it had accumulated losses of about 58 per cent last year to hit a four-year low.

“The Trust, however, had booked some profits only on last Friday, but it was done from another NIT run old fund. This profit selling was done for the first time in the last one year,” he disclosed and said, “The market men were presenting this tiny issue as the biggest issue of market these days.”

He questioned as why they were making a single day profit booking by one of NIT Fund as an issue when the other fund mangers are very much habitual of trading shares very frequently.



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KARACHI: The Acting Governor and Speaker Sindh Assembly, Nisar Khuhro, has said that the new NFC Award would be constituted in 2009-10, adding that the common man would be given special consideration in the upcoming budget.

Speaking to the media at the inauguration of ‘My Karachi Oasis of Harmony” being held at the Karachi Expo Centre from 5th to 7th June, Khuhro said that though Pakistan has internal and external threats, “we have to move forward as we are a resilient nation and we will fight back all threats.”

Adviser to the CM on Investments, Zubair Motiwala informed that a special zone has been allocated to Japanese entrepreneurs and investors and 1,900 acres of land has already been given to Japan.

He informed that Yamaha and Sony along with others have committed to come to Pakistan and invest in industries here. He said that the entire zone would be dedicated to Japanese entrepreneurs only and their residences would also be set up within the zone.



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LAHORE: The Non Performing Loans (NPLs) of banking industry have been growing and reached Rs121.092 billion in the third quarter ended 31 March 2009 and expected to further increase by the end of this fiscal year.

The recovery of NPLs has declined from Rs12.382 billion in the second quarter of the fiscal to Rs11.540 billion in the third quarter. The declining trend is due to economic recession that has increased the volume of NPLs.

The official data of the central bank shows that the net NPLs stand at Rs121.092 billion in the third quarter of this fiscal registering an increase of 0.43 per cent. The status of net NPLs at half year ended December 31 was Rs114.434 billion and total NPLs were Rs357.028 billion. The percentage of NPLs in the third quarter has grown by 0.43 per cent and standing at 3.96 per cent from half year ended 3.53 per cent.

The banking sector officials commenting on growing portfolio NPLs say it was a matter of concern but not alarming. However, growing NPLs are aggravating the impact of economic recession on job markets. Once a production unit is declared sick the people working there become unemployed. So the NPLs are indirectly adding the impact of economic recession on the employment market.

The data of central banks shows that the NPLs of all commercial banks had grown by 0.33 per cent and reached at Rs106.784 billion from Rs102.928 billion. Though, overall NPLs of the public sector commercial banks have reduced by 0.29 per cent in the third quarter.



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ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is facing a gigantic task to collect Rs191 billion in June to achieve the revised tax collection target of Rs1,180 billion by the end of June.

According to the FBR, it has collected Rs989 billion in the first eleven months of the current fiscal year. But the FBR has informed the finance ministry that its collection has touched Rs1 trillion in the next few days.

The expected revenue shortfall as well as delay in release of $1 billion by the Obama Administration on account of military services will result in missing the fiscal deficit target of 4.3 per cent of the GDP, equivalent to Rs562 billion by the end of June 2009.

In the prevailing situation where the newly appointed chairman FBR, Sohail Ahmed, is facing internal strife, there should not be expectations that the FBR will be able to materialize its envisaged target by displaying Rs 1180 billion on its board by end of the outgoing fiscal year.

“By putting maximum efforts, the FBR can touch Rs1,150 billion revenue target by June 30, 2009 against the agreed target of Rs1,180 billion with the IMF,” said a high-level official in the FBR and added that the collection would remain between Rs1,140 to Rs1,150 billion by the end of the day.





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Saturday, 06 June 2009 10:52

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has linked Aid Memoir for $11.8 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam with a consensus resolution by the National Assembly in favour of the dam to have across the board ownership in the country.

“A fact-finding mission of ADB has conveyed this to Pakistan in plain words here in a meeting held in the Economic Affairs Division (EAD),” a senior official who attended the meeting told The News. WAPDA Chairman Shakil Durrani was also part of the meeting.

The government has already come up with a commitment to initiate formal work for construction of the dam portion of the mega project and allocated over Rs23 billion for next fiscal year.

Pakistan is expecting $5 billion from the ADB, but the Bank, which earlier indicated to lend loan amounting to $2.5 billion for the dam is likely to increase the credit in the range of $3 to $4 billion in the Aid Memoir.

The official said that Pakistan in the meeting asked the bank to come up with $5 billion loan for the mega project against its offer of $2.5 billion. “The bank responded to Pakistan’s request saying, lets wait for the Aid Memoir.”

EAD Secretary Furrukh Qayyum when contacted said that the fact finding mission actually came up with advisory report containing the guidelines and benchmarks as per the international best practices for loan generation prior to initiating the formal work on mega project such as a Diamer-Basha dam.

Once the project becomes marketable after bringing project document in line with advice of the fact mission of the Bank, it would be very easy to generate funding for the project. “So far the bank has shown ownership for the project in all shapes, but wants the advisory report to get implemented first.”

When asked if ADB has indicated to come up with Aid Memoir in next 15 days, he said it is too premature, as Pakistan will first have to implement the advice, which the mission has given to the WAPDA chairman and then the stage will come for Aid Memoir. However, he admitted that the Bank has asked for the unanimous resolution in favour of Diamer-Bhasha dam to avoid any dispute.


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Saturday, 06 June 2009 10:52

ISLAMABAD: The government has approved projection of the oil import bill to the tune of $9.365 billion in the upcoming budget for 2009-10 against revised estimates of $9.858 billion in the outgoing fiscal year 2008-09. According to a summary for Annual Plan 2009-10 approved by the National Economic Council (NEC), a copy of which is available with The News, the government had estimated an oil import bill of $13.669 billion on eve of budget 2008-09, which was scaled down in accordance

with revised estimates to the tune of $9.858 billion, owing to reduction in international prices of POL products.

Now the oil prices have started witnessing a surge in the international market, touching an average price of over $60 per barrel. But the government has projected oil import bill of $9.365 billion for 2009-10.

The Annual Plan 2009-10 envisaged GDP growth at 3.3 per cent, while inflation target is set at 9 per cent in the next budget. In real GDP growth of 3.3 per cent, the contribution of agriculture will be 3.8pc, manufacturing 1.8pc and services 3.9pc. GDP at the current market price would increase by 12.9 per cent as it would touch Rs14779 billion.

The target rate for CPI inflation is set at 9 per cent for 2009-10 against expected inflation of 20 per cent in 2008-09. “This projection has been made in view of the improvements in macroeconomic indicators and weakening international oil and commodity prices,” the summary states.

Total investment is projected to be around 20 per cent of the GDP in 2009-10. National Savings as a ratio to GDP is projected at 14.7 per cent, implying that almost 74 per cent of investment will be financed through national savings. This will leave 26 per cent of the investment to be financed from foreign savings, which will be 5.3 per cent of GDP.



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Saturday, 06 June 2009 10:52

KARACHI: A team of experts from China has arrived in Sindh to develop quality seeds for rice and cotton, which are likely to increase production, according to officials.

“At present, production of rice and cotton was 40 maunds per acre, but after developing quality seeds, we are expecting production to go up to 80-90 maunds,” said Secretary Agriculture Agha Jan Akhtar.

Talking to The News at his office, Akhtar said the Chinese were visiting Sakrand for developing high quality local variety of rice and cotton.

He recalled that President Asif Ali Zardari during his recent visit to China had taken this initiative as a province of China, which has the same weather as that of Sindh, produces high quality seeds of rice and cotton.

Talking about projects of the Agriculture Department for the next financial year 2009-10, he said the Sindh government plans to construct water reservoirs in water-scarce districts of the province.

These reservoirs, which would be spread over two to four acres, would meet shortage of water, especially for tail-enders.

He said the need for constructing reservoirs was felt because in water-scarce areas like Badin, Thatta and other districts, water was not supplied for several days, resulting in damage to crops.

The government also planned to provide laser leveling equipments and other machines like thrasher to farmers on 50pc subsidy. For this purpose, Rs200 million would be earmarked in the next financial year, Akhtar said. The government intended to provide 1000 tractors to the farmers in the next financial year and Rs0.2 million in subsidy per tractor would be provided.

He said Sindh has fixed a target of 3,000,000 million tons of cotton for the next year 2009-10. Target for sugarcane has been fixed at 14,209,000 million tons and for rice, it is 2,039,000 million tons. Target for wheat would be fixed later.

To a question, Agha Jan Akhtar said foreign investors, especially those belonging to the UAE, had shown their interest in corporate farming, but Board of Revenue would identify the land needed. He opined that foreign investment was needed in packaging and processing.

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