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8 April 2018

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6<br />

Sunday, <strong>April</strong> 8, <strong>2018</strong><br />

Biz<br />

FATF concerns<br />

Miftah says tax amnesty scheme<br />

doesn’t violate money laundering laws<br />

CORPORATE CORNER<br />

Dell showcases its unique range of products<br />

at the Dell experience roadshow in Pakistan<br />

KARACHI: Adviser to the<br />

prime minister on Finance Miftah<br />

Ismail on Saturday assuaged the<br />

concerns of the Financial Action<br />

Task Force (FATF) and assured the<br />

tax amnesty scheme does not violate<br />

money laundering laws.<br />

“Pakistan’s tax amnesty scheme<br />

adheres to all international antimoney<br />

laundering laws,” the adviser<br />

on finance said while speaking to<br />

private TV.<br />

Ismail shared that he has<br />

received an e-mail from the global<br />

money-laundering watchdog, FATF,<br />

calling for global needs and the<br />

agreed-upon guidelines to be<br />

respected.<br />

“The FATF has stressed upon<br />

strict monitoring of money laundering<br />

and terrorist financing activities,”<br />

the Pakistani premier’s financial<br />

adviser said.<br />

Ismail further said he has not<br />

responded to the email as yet.<br />

Earlier a report claimed that the<br />

FATF had written to Ismail to<br />

express reservations regarding the<br />

possibility of violation of money<br />

laundering laws and increase in terrorist<br />

financing under the new<br />

amnesty scheme.<br />

Pakistan has to present a consolidated<br />

plan against money laundering<br />

to FATF next month so it is not<br />

added to the grey-list of the global<br />

money-laundering watchdog.<br />

In February, Pakistan’s Foreign<br />

Office said the country would be<br />

placed on the grey list of the FATF<br />

in June. Member states of the FATF<br />

were persuaded by Washington to<br />

place Pakistan back on the “grey<br />

list” of nations with inadequate terrorist<br />

financing or money laundering<br />

controls. Pakistan was on the list<br />

for three years, until 2015.<br />

On Thursday, Prime Minister<br />

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi announced a<br />

reduction in income tax rates and an<br />

amnesty scheme aimed at broadening<br />

the government's revenue base.<br />

SBP issues warning against virtual currencies<br />

KARACHI: Pakistan's<br />

central bank on Friday<br />

advised people against the<br />

usage of cryptocurrency in<br />

any kind of transactions in<br />

the country, saying the new<br />

medium of exchange was<br />

neither "recognized as a<br />

Legal Tender" nor was<br />

"authorized or licensed" to<br />

anyone.<br />

In its circular — titled<br />

"Caution regarding risks of<br />

virtual currencies", the State<br />

Bank of Pakistan (SBP)<br />

rationalised: "Virtual<br />

Currencies/Coins/Tokens<br />

provide high degree of<br />

anonymity and potentially<br />

can be used for facilitating<br />

illegal activities.<br />

RAWALPINDI: In order<br />

to facilitate the passengers of<br />

Green Line (5-Up/6-Dn), the<br />

Pakistan Railways have<br />

reduced over 10 percent<br />

fares.<br />

Divisional Commercial<br />

Officer (DCO) Pakistan<br />

Railways, Rawalpindi Raza<br />

Ali Habib talking to APP<br />

informed that Pakistan<br />

Railways have reduced over<br />

Rs 600 from Rs 5990 to new<br />

fare Rs 5340 for the passengers<br />

to travel from<br />

Rawalpindi to Karachi.<br />

From Rawalpindi to<br />

"Also due to the ambiguous<br />

nature of Virtual<br />

Currencies, no legal protection<br />

or recourse is available<br />

to any individual," the notification<br />

added.<br />

The top financial authority's<br />

External Relations<br />

Department said it prudent to<br />

stay away from digital currency<br />

deals or investments<br />

since its significant price<br />

fluctuation, hacking and<br />

cybersecurity issues, and closure,<br />

"including action by<br />

law enforcement agencies",<br />

could lead to preventable<br />

losses.<br />

The circular — the third<br />

one issued this year by the<br />

SBP's Banking Policy &<br />

Lahore fare for Green Line<br />

has been fixed Rs 1200<br />

while from Rawalpindi to<br />

Khanewal would be charged<br />

Rs 2410. Similarly, Rs 3180<br />

is new fare for the train from<br />

Rawalpindi to Bahawalpur<br />

and Rs 4430 for Rawalpindi<br />

to Rohri. The passengers of<br />

Green Line would pay Rs<br />

5060 for Rawalpindi to<br />

Hyderabad travel.<br />

He further informed that<br />

due to enhanced security<br />

measures, quality service<br />

and punctuality, the number<br />

of passengers traveling via<br />

Regulations Department<br />

(BPRD) — added that no<br />

financial institution or<br />

investment house is to let its<br />

clients engage in virtual currency-related<br />

transactions.<br />

"Fraudsters are also offering<br />

pyramid style investment<br />

schemes and coins and<br />

promising high returns (similar<br />

to Ponzi schemes) to the<br />

general public in Pakistan.<br />

"This can cause significant<br />

loss to the General Public," it<br />

added.<br />

It is noteworthy that foreign<br />

remittances, even from<br />

countries that have permitted<br />

cryptocurrency trade, would<br />

not be processed either, since<br />

no person or company is<br />

Pakistan railways reduces<br />

Green Line’s fares by 10 percent<br />

train is increasing day by day<br />

and over 42,56,318 passengers<br />

traveled through the rail<br />

service during 2017 from<br />

Rawalpindi Division.<br />

The division earned Rs.<br />

1864.213 million last year,<br />

he added.<br />

To a question he said,<br />

Pakistan Railways,<br />

Rawalpindi Division have<br />

earned Rs. 1612.618 million<br />

against the set target of<br />

Rs. 1595.851 million up to<br />

March 20, during last nine<br />

months of 2017-18 financial<br />

year.<br />

Oil falls on Trump's latest<br />

China trade threats<br />

NEW YORK: Oil prices<br />

fell about 2 percent on Friday<br />

after U.S. President Donald<br />

Trump threatened new tariffs<br />

on China, reigniting fears of a<br />

trade war between the<br />

world’s two largest<br />

economies that could hurt<br />

global growth.<br />

Trump said on Thursday<br />

he had ordered U.S. trade<br />

officials to consider tariffs on<br />

an extra $100 billion of<br />

imports from China, escalating<br />

tensions with Beijing.<br />

China warned on Friday it<br />

was fully prepared to respond<br />

with a “fierce counter strike”<br />

of fresh trade measures if the<br />

United States follows<br />

through on Trump’s threat.<br />

“The heightened possibility<br />

of an outright tariff war is<br />

conjuring up images of<br />

slowed economic growth that<br />

could curtail the strong oil<br />

demand that has helped to<br />

revive a strong pricing environment<br />

during the past couple<br />

of months,” Jim<br />

Ritterbusch, president of<br />

Ritterbusch and Associates,<br />

said in a note.<br />

Brent crude LCOc1<br />

futures settled down $1.22 at<br />

$67.11 a barrel. U.S. West<br />

Texas Intermediate (WTI)<br />

crude CLc1 futures fell $1.48<br />

to $62.06 a barrel, a 2.3 percent<br />

loss. Brent crude<br />

dropped 2.8 percent in the<br />

week while U.S. crude fell<br />

4.4 percent, the biggest<br />

weekly decline since early<br />

February.<br />

U.S. stock indexes also<br />

fell on trade war jitters, which<br />

weighed on oil prices. Crude<br />

futures have recently tracked<br />

with equities.<br />

OPEC member Libya’s<br />

oil output is at around 1.05<br />

million barrels per day<br />

despite a continuing outage<br />

since February at its 70,000<br />

bpd El Feel oilfield, a Libyan<br />

oil source told Reuters on<br />

Friday. U.S. drillers added 11<br />

oil rigs in the week to<strong>April</strong> 6,<br />

bringing the total count up to<br />

808, the highest level since<br />

March 2015, General<br />

Electric Co’s (GE.N) Baker<br />

Hughes energy services firm<br />

said in its closely followed<br />

report on Friday.<br />

The Permian basin in<br />

Texas is leading the way as<br />

U.S. oil production has<br />

reached an all-time high, but<br />

the prolific output is causing<br />

bottlenecks as pipelines<br />

transporting the crude have<br />

filled up more quickly than<br />

expected, depressing prices<br />

in the region.<br />

legally allowed to accept or<br />

send payments via any kind<br />

of digital currencies.<br />

Frenzied Bitcoin demand<br />

sent prices of the digital currency<br />

skyrocketing close to<br />

$20,000 late last year but<br />

<strong>2018</strong> slashed them drastically,<br />

leading to disgruntled<br />

users faced with unexpected<br />

losses.<br />

Businessmen panel<br />

demands cut in prices<br />

of locally made cars<br />

LAHORE: Businessmen<br />

Panel (BMP) Punjab’s<br />

Secretary General Mian<br />

Usman Zulfiqar Saturday<br />

urged the government to<br />

announce special slab to<br />

reduce the prices of locally<br />

assembled cars in the<br />

upcoming budget to facilitate<br />

the masses.<br />

Usman Zulfiqar, in a<br />

statement here, said it was<br />

totally unjustified that local<br />

manufactures revised their<br />

car prices whenever they<br />

desired and without even<br />

getting approval. The<br />

Ministry of Industries must<br />

devise a mechanism to regulate<br />

the local assemblers’<br />

prices, he added.<br />

He suggested some tax<br />

measures to reduce the cost<br />

of locally produced vehicles<br />

and make the same<br />

more affordable. By<br />

exempting the imports<br />

made under SRO<br />

655(I)/2006 and SRO<br />

656(I)/2006 from additional<br />

customs duty under SRO<br />

1178(I)/2015, the government<br />

could help reduce the<br />

cost of vehicles being produced<br />

locally, he added.<br />

Finance division<br />

provided Rs18,107<br />

mln to execute<br />

its projects<br />

I S L A M A B A D : T h e<br />

federal government has so<br />

far released Rs 18,107.546<br />

million for various ongoing<br />

and new projects of the<br />

Finance Division under<br />

the Public Sector<br />

Development Programme<br />

(PSDP) for the current fiscal<br />

year 2017-18.<br />

According to official<br />

sources, the government<br />

had earmarked Rs<br />

27,064.708 million in the<br />

PSDP for the Finance<br />

Division projects, with<br />

foreign exchange component<br />

of Rs 715.402 million.<br />

An amount of Rs 6,998<br />

million has been released<br />

for Greater Karachi Water<br />

Supply Scheme, which is<br />

being developed by the<br />

Sindh and federal governments<br />

on cost sharing<br />

basis. The federal government<br />

has earmarked Rs<br />

9,555 million for the project<br />

under the PSDP of the<br />

current fiscal year.<br />

Similarly, Rs 1,500 million<br />

has been released for<br />

Greater Karachi Sewerage<br />

Plant (S-III) Karachi,<br />

which is also being developed<br />

on cost sharing basis.<br />

The federal government<br />

has earmarked Rs 1,500<br />

million for the project in<br />

the PSDP 2017-18.<br />

The federal government<br />

also released Rs 350 million<br />

for Gwadar<br />

Development Authority<br />

and Rs 300.188 million for<br />

two power plants from<br />

Syngas (IGCC 2009) in<br />

Tharparker, with each<br />

plant having capacity of<br />

producing 50 megawatt<br />

electricity.<br />

The total cost of the<br />

project was estimated at<br />

Rs 8,898.7 million, out of<br />

which Rs 300.188 was earmarked<br />

in the fiscal year<br />

2017-18, which has<br />

already been released.<br />

Call to reduce prices of local<br />

cars to facilitate masses<br />

KARACHI: Businessmen Panel leader, Mian<br />

Usman Zulfiqar said on Saturday that the government<br />

must announce special slap to reduce the prices of<br />

local assembled cars in the coming budget to facilitate<br />

masses.<br />

He said this is no way that whenever local manufactures<br />

desire they revised their car prices without<br />

getting even due approval and in result common people<br />

affect. The Ministry of Industries must design<br />

some mechanism to regulate the local assembler<br />

prices; he added.<br />

Usman told though Pakistan doesn’t have the best<br />

auto industry, it is growing market. Old models<br />

launch in Pakistan after years and they are way more<br />

expensive. One of the reason is that the auto industry<br />

is still in its adolescence and inresult local companies<br />

enjoyed good profits at the year end which is well<br />

seen in their balance sheets but yet to ignore due quality<br />

standards in their existing models.<br />

ISLAMABAD: The<br />

Pakistan Economy Watch<br />

(PEW) on Saturday said<br />

ignoring agricultural sector<br />

is Keeping millions<br />

poor and hitting growth<br />

rate.<br />

The agriculture sector<br />

is considered the backbone<br />

of the economy but<br />

it is not getting due attention<br />

since decades despite<br />

the fact that majority of<br />

the population depends on<br />

this sector, it said.<br />

The bad cotton crop<br />

and reduction in the area<br />

under cultivation of wheat<br />

will reduce the growth<br />

rate while the country<br />

KARACHI: At the Dell Consumer #DellExperience Roadshow held in Lahore<br />

today, Dell unveiled a new suite of world class products to address the myriad ways<br />

people work and play. In addition to showcasing some of the latest devices that represent<br />

style and power, Dell also highlighted the incredible innovations embedded<br />

within these products that are intended to improve performance, functionality and<br />

the overall user experience.<br />

The devices displayed at the roadshow includes the new Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 notebooks,<br />

Dell Gaming series, Latitude and Vostro notebooks. Powered by the 8th<br />

Generation Intel Core processors,these latest Intel Quad Core CPUs provides significant<br />

performance improvements.<br />

Dell is committed to offer the best technology for our valued customers in<br />

Pakistan.Our exceptional products are designed to provide mobility, power and flexibility<br />

to its users. People want richer experiences, and they wanttheir devices to<br />

matchtheir lifestyle requirements. Our new range of notebooks are meeting the<br />

demands ofcustomers who needperformance to correspond withtheir computing<br />

needs”, says Naveed Siraj, country General Manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan.<br />

Dell XPS portfolio has won more product awards than any other brand in the<br />

company’s history. The latest XPS 13 is improved in every conceivable way and was<br />

just named a CES <strong>2018</strong> Innovation Award honoree. Along with its next-generation<br />

InfinityEdge 4K Ultra HD display, the XPS 13 adds a dazzling Rose Gold with<br />

Alpine White woven glass fiber interior as an option to traditional silver and black,<br />

with narrower borders and up to 80% more thermal headroom.<br />

The new Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming laptop is a powerful sub-1” laptop tailored to<br />

the needs of enthusiasts. Dell Inspiron Gaming systems are purpose-built for gaming.<br />

It raises the bar for Dell’s most aggressive performance design and components<br />

offered within the Inspiron Gaming laptop family. They’re easy to use, easy to own,<br />

and deliver exceptional performance for today’s gamers looking to get the most<br />

power and features for their money.<br />

The Dell Experience also featured the new Vostro and refreshed Latitude portfolio,<br />

which aredeveloped with the mobile workforce in mind and aligned with<br />

insights from various research sponsored by Dell. The latest global research shared<br />

the impact of emerging technologies that see 48% global business leaders surveyed,<br />

including leaders in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), believe they’ll have more job satisfaction<br />

in the future by offloading tasks to machines. Thus, businesses and workforce<br />

today are increasingly critical on devices they need to support their work today<br />

and to help adapt with the future.<br />

Shell Rimula celebrates hard<br />

working truckers and farmers<br />

KARACHI: Shell Rimula – the premium heavy duty engine<br />

oil launched a new campaign, “What Matters is Inside”. The<br />

campaign portrays the daily toils of Pakistani truck-drivers,<br />

and farmers emphasizing their tireless efforts put in each day<br />

to achieve their goals and reach their destinations safely.<br />

The campaign, champions the people within these professions,<br />

recognizing there is more to these individuals than what<br />

meets the eye. For many, the job of a truck driver and farmer doesn’t immediately<br />

paint an inviting image in our minds. The rugged exterior is overpowering and it is<br />

too easy to miss the critical role they play in the society. Through this campaign, we<br />

see them through the eyes of those that matter most in the lives of truckers and farmers,<br />

looking up to them as their bread winners, doting fathers, hardworking sons and<br />

husbands.<br />

Shell Rimula, their hard-working partner acknowledges their struggle, reveals the<br />

trucker’s personal motivations, ideals and earnest desire to enrich their lives and<br />

understands what they do and who they do it for, because at the end of the day, that<br />

is what matters to them.<br />

Commenting at the launch of the campaign, Mr. Haroon Rashid, Business Manager<br />

Lubricants, Shell Pakistan Limited said, “These hard-working truckers and farmers<br />

play an essential role towards Pakistan’s economic growth and we want to appreciate<br />

and highlight their enduring efforts through Shell Rimula’s ‘What Matters Is Inside’<br />

campaign. We want to celebrate the people behind these professions , for others to recognize<br />

and acknowledge the sacrifices, the journey, and the energy they expend, while<br />

Shell Rimula will continue to support them on their journey.<br />

ISLAMABAD: Girls hold food during the Pakistan Branding Diner to showcase<br />

Pakistan’s halal meat, high-value, off-season vegetables, and kinnow organized by<br />

United State Agency for International Development (USAID) - Pakistan at local hotel.<br />

Ignoring agriculture keeping million poor: PEW<br />

will have to spend billions<br />

to bridge the shortfall<br />

of 2.5 million bales,<br />

said Murtaza Mughal,<br />

President of PEW.<br />

The farmers are ignoring<br />

latest methods and<br />

continue to increase the<br />

volume of inputs like fertilizer<br />

to boost production<br />

which is increasing the<br />

cost of doing business, he<br />

added.<br />

Murtaza Mughal said<br />

that it is next to impossible<br />

to ensure national<br />

development while keeping<br />

agricultural development<br />

on the backburner,<br />

adding that the poor performance<br />

of agriculture<br />

sector to drag down the<br />

GDP.<br />

He said that agriculture<br />

is no more the largest sector<br />

of the economy but it<br />

continues to provide jobs<br />

to the majority of the<br />

laborers therefore it merits<br />

attention.

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