The foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased, but the holdings of commercial banks fell during the week ended on Oct 18. The details provided by the central bank showed the SBP reserves rose by $18 million to $11.040 billion. The surging SBP reserves are ensuring exchange rate stability. However, commercial banks’ forex holdings fell $112m to $4.976bn, indicating
Bringing an ongoing bickering within the regulator to the public domain, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday announced an 85 paise per unit negative fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for electricity sold to consumers of power distribution companies (Discos) in August at a higher rate. The decision, reached by a majority vote of 4:1, followed an unprecedented month-long
ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL) on Thursday announced the commencement of production from its exploratory Baloch-2 well in the Sembar formation, located in Sanghar district of Sindh. The company had announced the gas condensate discovery from the Baloch-2 well on August 30, 2024, and brought its production to the system, a statement said. The well, situated wit
Reiterating their concerns over the proposed acquisition of Telenor Pakistan by PTCL, Jazz and Wateen informed a three-member bench of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) on Thursday that the combined entity would be able to manipulate tariff structures at their discretion. The fifth and the last hearing in the Phase II review of PTCL’s acquisition of Telenor and Orion Towers Ltd was c
ISLAMABAD: On the instructions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government has formally started rationalising the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and established matrix-based principles for identifying and financing future development projects. On Thursday, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal chaired a meeting of a special committee formed by the prime minister. The meeting