The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue has approved the Income Tax (Second Amendment) Bill 2025 and sought a report from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on tax deduction from teacher salaries. The committee meeting, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, focused on the withdrawal of tax exemptions for salaried individuals, particularly teachers, whose salaries faced significan
Foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased by $70 million to $11.516 billion during the week ended on May 23, the central bank announced on Thursday. The SBP needs to generate an additional $2.5bn to reach the revised $14bn target by the end of the current fiscal year. However, the currency experts expressed doubt that the SBP could achieve the goal in the last mon
Industrial power consumers on Thursday criticised the revival of rising fuel costs in an unpredictable manner, despite the government’s commitments to declining electricity rates as a result of much-touted reforms in the sector and tariff renegotiations with power producers. At a public hearing on Rs1.27 per unit additional fuel cost adjustments demanded by distribution companies (Discos), the
Depicting a cautious outlook towards growth in Large-Scale Manufacturing (LSM), the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Thursday presented a rising trajectory for inflation during May and June. “Inflation is projected to remain between 1.5-2.0 per cent in May, with a possible rise to 3.0-4.0pc by June”, significantly higher than a record low of 0.3pc in April, the MoF said in its Monthly Economic Upda
Amid growing official promotion of Bitcoin adoption, both the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Thursday said that cryptocurrency remains banned in the country and all its transactions are illegal under current regulations. During a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, Finance Secretary Imdadullah Bosal said that although