People do not work to pay taxes. People work to earn an after-tax income. What that after-tax income is in each case, and how it is related to reported income and work efforts, is often far from obvious. Tax rates or retention rates are conceptually quite different. Grasping the difference is the key to understanding the ways in which taxes change economic behaviour and outcomes. When tax ra
The cotton industry stands on the brink of a full-blown crisis as ineffective policies and neglect by policymakers have put the agricultural backbone and textile sector in dire straits. The unchecked wave of duty-free imports of cotton and yarn has set the stage for a perfect storm, endangering farmers, ginners and the entire textile value chain. Experts fear that the looming threat of a cot
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) maintained bullish momentum on easing political noise and firm expectations of a significant policy rate cut in the upcoming monetary policy review, helping the KSE 100 index settle above 114,000-barrier for the first time in the outgoing week. The PSX reached a new milestone as the weekly average traded value hit an all-time high of Rs60 billion. The index del
“Sometimes the government just needs to get out of the way,” says Misbah Naqvi, co-founder of invest2innovate (i2i) Ventures, at the launch of Pakistan Startup Ecosystem Report (PSER) 2024. Her sentiments have been echoed by similar successful sectors, maize and sports goods, to name a couple. Pakistani startups have only reported $37 million till November 2024, a far cry from the peak of $355m
The bull run in Pakistan’s capital market is encouraging, but the outlook for critical long-term investments appears less optimistic. For instance, the multi-billion-dollar copper and gold project at Reko Diq in Balochistan’s Chagi district may face delays in materialising, despite the active involvement of Canadian giant Barrick Gold, which holds commanding 50 per cent stake in the venture. Th