DNA

ISLAMABAD, JUL 4 – Former President ICCI Shahid Rasheed Butt on Saturday said the farming community is in crisis, therefore, the government has decided to implement Rs56.6 billion agriculture package which is a laudable move.

Implementation of the package announced in May will provide relief to millions of farmers in the wake of locust attacks, pandemic, and lockdown.

He said that the government should take steps to frustrate unholy designs of hoarders to create an artificial shortage of fertilizer to avoid crop failure and food security issues.

Shahid Rasheed Butt said that government has decided to give a subsidy of Rs37 billion to farmers to help them buy fertilizer which will help strengthen the agriculture sector.

He said that the government should allocate Rs20 billion for quality seed and good pesticides while taxes should be reduced on locally-manufactured and imported agricultural machinery so that their price can be reduced in the local market.

Affordable agriculture loans should be issued to genuine farmers while those having small holdings should be preferred, he said, adding that wastage of agricultural loans is rampant which can be controlled by allocating quota for every province.

The business leader said that presently 91 percent agricultural loans are bring provided to one province depriving others which should be noticed.

He said that like many other important crops per acre produce of wheat is stagnant since the last eleven years for which the research and development should be improved.

Seed companies should not be given a free hand but regulated so that the food security situation improves and farmers could get good returns on their investments, he demanded.

Many packages in the past have failed to achieve desired results, therefore, steps should be taken to make it a success.

DNA

ISLAMABAD, JUL 4 –  As more than 65% percent record jump in fuel prices have pushed up the weekly inflation the Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front has asked the government to withdraw the anti-industry decision, warning the authorities that inflation above 6 percent could hurt economic growth and only a careful policy would keep it in control.

In a joint statement, with senior vice chairman Nasir Hameed and vice chairman Javed Siddiqi, Mian Nauman Kabir said that oil prices and inflation are closely connected in a cause-and-effect relationship. As fuel rates move up, inflation, which is the measure of general price trends throughout the economy, follows in the same direction upward. On the other hand, if the rates of fuel fall, inflationary pressures start to drop. In the start of this year, oil prices collapsed amid the COVID-19 pandemic and economic slowdown. OPEC and its allies agreed to historic production cuts to stabilize prices, but they dropped to over 16 years low.

Referring the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), PIAF chairman Mian Nauman Kabir said that the Sensitive Price Indicator based weekly inflation for the week, for the combined consumption group, witnessed an increase of 2.29% compared to the previous week, mainly due to the increase in fuel prices in the country. The SPI inflation for the combined consumption group was recorded at 132.32 points compared to 129.36 points registered in the previous week. In the same way, as compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI inflation for the combined consumption group in the week witnessed an increase of 9.77 per cent.

Mian Nauman called for putting the economy on a balanced and sustainable growth trajectory, addressing the underlying structural vulnerabilities, as low export growth, limited foreign exchange reserves, documentation of economy and higher food inflation are still major challenges to the economy.

He urged the government to take concrete measures for easing out inflation that has further increased due to rise in oil prices and other essential commodities. He said that inflation is on higher side due to the impact of government’s economic policies of soaring fuel rates, enhancing power and gas tariff, depreciating the local currency and imposing exorbitant duties on imported industry raw material.

He asked the Ministry of Finance to devise a strategy to control and ease out the impact of inflation. He said that policy measures like zero borrowing by govt from SBP in current FY would decrease the local wheat price. Reduction in fiscal deficit, primary surplus H2FY 20; monetary tightening and demand compression by austerity; complete restriction on supplementary grants are positive examples, he added.

He said that downward trajectory in crude oil in the global market should result in downward pattern in domestic prices.

PIAF senior vice chairman Nasir Hameed said that the outcome of stabilization policies, agriculture sector interventions, rigorous monitoring at federal and provincial levels and favourable weather can bring in better results in easing out inflation and sustain the economy towards growth and productivity.

Nasir Hameed said that adverse effects climate on crops, disruption of supply chain of essential items, delay in harvest and arrival of crop in the market and lower production of vegetables, led to a higher food inflation.

PIAF vice chairman Javed Siddiqi asked the government to also take relief measures to protect the vulnerable from the price-hike. These measures include provision of subsidy to Utility Stores Corporation on essential items.

Javed Iqbal said that price monitoring cell to check price hikes of essential food items; network of Utility Store outlets should also be expanded for provision of essential items. He said provincial governments monitoring display of price list and quality of items in open market and effective measures of CCP to control cartelization and undue profiteering can also control the inflation to some extent.

He stressed the need for building on gains on the ease of doing business front, which requires not just the capacity development in key public institutions, but also a continuous dialogue with relevant stakeholders to ensure smooth implementation, he added.

The Institute of Business Management (IoBM) has been awarded the highest category “W” by the National Business Education Accreditation Council (NBEAC).This honor is bestowed upon the BBA and MBA programs that are a part of one of IoBM’s constituent colleges, College of Business Management (CBM).

IoBM is now in the elite list comprising only seven business schools from Pakistan that fall in the “W” category. Mr. Talib Karim, President IoBM, in his message to the IoBM family, congratulated them for bringing the highest honor to CBM by securing NBEAC’s accreditation for 5-years.

IoBM receives this accolade in the year when it celebrates its 25th anniversary.This Institute was the vision of its late Founder President, Shahjehan S. Karim who dedicated his life towards excellence in education in Pakistan.

IoBM’s management including Ms. Sabina Mohsin, Executive Director; Dr. Irfan Hyder, Rector and Acting Dean, CBM, along with Deans, HoDs, faculty, and the QEC department have been working in unison to follow late Founder President’s legacy towards achieving excellence

Pakistan read $2 billion in fresh foreign loans only to return $809 million or 40% of that amount to repay foreign debt in the week ended June 26.

After adjusting that debt payment, the country’s net dollar reserves increased by $1.2 billion, according to the data the SBP released on Thursday.

Our foreign exchange reserves held as on June 26 reached $11.2 billion for the first time since April 2020. This is contrary to the preceding week’s tally when they fell to their lowest level in seven months.

The increase can be attributed to the dollar inflows into the country. This includes $725 million from the World Bank, $500 million from the Asian Development Bank and $500 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

The SBP publishes its weekly foreign exchange reserve data with a gap of a few days and the next weekly data may see its reserves shore up again because of fresh inflows of $1.3 billion in the current week by Chinese banks.

Pakistan’s depleting dollar reserves were one of the main challenges for the present government when it came into power in August 2018. Within the first six months of its rule, the government saw the dollar reserves fall to $6 billion, barely enough to pay for two months of imports. To tackle this challenge, PM Khan’s government signed a $6 billion bailout with the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF programme opened more doors for Pakistan as the World Bank, ADB and AIIB also pledged support. According to the IMF, its programme was supposed to unlock funding of $38 billion over the life of this programme from multilateral donors.

The dollar reserves doubled from its lowest point in 2018 to $12 billion this year. The dollar account turned to a surplus in October last year. However, going to the IMF comes at a cost due which steps were taken to choke economic growth such as reducing imports, depreciating the rupee, and increasing interest rates, which made borrowing expensive.

In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the loss to our dollar account was reduced by 73% and we were in surplus in May, the latest month for which data is available.