News

Punjab to fund its new tariff cut with power plants’ profit

A day after its decision to reduce power tariffs to provide relief in electricity bills, the Punjab government on Wednesday said the relief will be financed with billions in profits hitherto harvested by two government-owned power companies, the Quaid-e-Azam Thermal Power Private Limited and Punjab Thermal Power Private Limited. The provincial cabinet had decided to cut the power tariffs of the

Exports contract 10pc in May

Merch­a­ndise exports decreased by 10 per cent in May, continuing the negative trend for the current fiscal year, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The growth in export proceeds began to decelerate in October, and the pace progressively slowed in the months that followed, eventually shrinking by 5.57pc in February, 8.93pc in April, and 10.07pc in May. Export growth returned in

Punjab mulls waiving tax on local cotton

Punjab agriculture authorities are hopeful that taxes on local cotton will be withdrawn in the next budget to provide it a level playing field. Punjab Agriculture Minister Syed Ashiq Kirmani told a delegation of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association on Wednesday that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has carried the demand of abolishing taxes on local cotton to the pre-budget meeting of all chief m

Provinces take the lead on Rs4.2tr in uplift spending

Fuelled by a 22pc increase in provincial allocations, the National Economic Council (NEC) on Wednesday approved with consensus a record Rs4.22 trillion national development outlay for the next fiscal year to upgrade growth rate to 4.2pc from 2.7 this year, despite an IMF-decreed 29pc cut in the public sector development programme (PSDP) compared to the current year. The provincial expansionary

Stocks falter after breaching 120,000-barrier

The Pakis­tan Stock Exchange (PSX) snapped its three-session winning streak as investors indulged in profit-taking towards end of the session, dragging the benchmark KSE 100 index in the red zone after scaling an all-time high above 120,000 intraday. Topline Securities Ltd stated that the stock market exhibited volatility, with the index fluctuating within a wide range, primarily influenced by