News

Professionals being hired to run tax policy office

The Ministry of Finance is inducting six professionals from the market to operationalise the Tax Policy Office (TPO), which will directly report to the finance minister in line with commitments made with the IMF under the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The ministry on Monday sought applications for the positions — one for the director general of TPO and five directors having different

Equities resume record-setting spree in robust week

A positive review of the economy by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and progress on the resolution of energy sector circular debt kept equity investors bullish, driving the benchmark KSE 100 index to scale an all-time high near 119,000 in the outgoing week. The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued its northward journey for the sixth week. The index, which reached an intra-week all-time

Net-metering saga: Much ado about the 0.83 per cent

The surge in generation of electricity through a distributed network has been driven by a significant reduction in solar panel prices globally, largely due to a supply glut in China, which is the largest manufacturer of solar panels. A drop in prices led to a surge in demand, and a solar revolution started to take shape, against the backdrop of high electricity prices that were being offered by th

Teaching people how to fish

The real value of charitable giving this Ramazan in Pakistan appears to be on par with or marginally less than last year, as prolonged economic stagnation has strained household finances, limiting how much people can afford to donate. The financial strain appears to have hit the more popular consumptive giving (food supplies providing immediate relief) harder than transformative causes (healthc

Sugar makes the world go round

They say politicians won’t make a promise they could deliver on. The recent so-called sugar price ‘crisis’ has once again proved this saying right. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose own family owns sugar mills in Punjab, had promised not to let the sweetener’s rates go up beyond Rs140 a kilo when his administration allowed a portion of the alleged unsold surplus stock from the past two years to