The federal government on Monday signed an agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) to defer by one year a $1.2 billion payment on oil imports. State broadcaster PTV showed the signing ceremony between a delegation of the fund led by its CEO Sultan Bin Abdul Rehman Al Marshad and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The premier welcomed the signing of the oil import financing facility,
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Monday thanked the provincial governments for imposing the agriculture income tax (AIT), in line with the commitment made to the IMF. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance, Mr Aurangzeb praised the passage of the AIT law, a key milestone in efforts to broaden the tax base. The statement followed the Sindh Assembly’s passage of the
The government is making another attempt to privatise PIA after the previous effort in which a sole investor submitted a bid of Rs10 billion, significantly lower than officials’ expectations. The lack of interest shown by the buyers during the first round of privatisation was due to multiple reasons, including the 18 per cent GST on the purchase of new aircraft and the national carrier’s liabil
Even though inflation has fallen to a nine-year low, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet appeared unsure at a meeting on Monday whether it benefited the common people and expressed concern over rising prices of critical kitchen items like sugar, vegetables and edible oil despite declining international prices. The meeting of the ECC, presided over by Finance Minister Muhamm
The annual inflation maintained a decelerating trend, hitting a nine-year low at 2.4 per cent year-on-year in January, mainly due to a decline in prices of perishable food products. The headline inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), decreased to 9.6pc in August 2024, the first single-digit figure in more than three years, and the path of slowing down continued in the following