‘Economy’ Archives

Doesn’t timely payment and honoring financial commitments come under the head of good governance? The contractors are demanding payment as they are in default of suppliers. Isn’t this circular debt in the making? The government owes the State Bank and Contractors, the contractors owe their laborers and suppliers, the suppliers owing someone [...]

Europe is at the verge of the biggest overhaul since the Second World War. The target of the change is the welfare state. At the beginning of the Cold War, several Western countries adopted the idea of the welfare state and showcased it as the best model for a society. The actual aim, however, was to discredit Communist and Socialist [...]

I have been highlighting the positives that are happening in Pakistan’s economy and this post is 3rd in the series after motorcycle and tractor sales. Ship breaking activity in Gaddani, Balochistan has increased by 9.4% in number of tons of ship breaking activity in the outgoing fiscal year 2009-10. Government has received 55.1% higher taxes [...]

While scanning Dawn, I saw this advertisement from Millat Tractors Limited (MTL). MTL has announced that in fiscal year 2009-10, they have produced over 40,000 tractors. This is a figure which is 32% higher than 2008-09. Being a shareholder of MTL which is a listed company on Karachi Stock Exchange, I receive their annual reports regularly. The [...]

NOTE: These are not Federal Government Figures. These are released by the Pakistan Auto Manufacturers Association Who buys a motorcycle in Pakistan? Answer: a common man like a milkman, newspaper vendor, people commuting to their workplace, factory workers, farmers etc Do banks and financial institutions finance motorcycles? Answer: Yes, but [...]

SUSPICIOUS PARTICULARS OF THE BUDGET SCHEME PAGE 981 PC21031 (031) MISCELLANEOUS H58     Grant in aid in favour of Roshni Association Society for Welfare of Special Persons, Lahore.                                                                               [...]

Source Newsline Magazine (May 2010): The Iran-Pakistan pipeline agreement, inked in March, is the latest step Islamabad has made in the long-running negotiations with its neighbour over the trans-boundary flow of compressed natural gas to this energy-stressed nation. By reaching this understanding with Tehran, the government of Pakistan has taken [...]

Published in The News. Read Part I here The estimate that the government will be able to a) raise Rs19.4 billion from privatisation, given the security situation within the country and the pro-active role played by the courts in the previous privatisation of the Steel Mills and in the recent LNG affair, is rather ambitious. Similarly, the hope [...]

Published in The News: The budget for 2010/11 has been presented at a time that the economy is struggling and the government's fiscal position is under severe stress. This PPP government had inherited a precarious situation, which was compounded by insecurity and food inflation - some of it external in nature. Thus, it had limited room for [...]

Punjab government has decided to withdraw luxury vehicles tax in order to collect more revenue. The provincial Finance Minister, Tanvir Ashraf Kaira, observed the tax was planned to be levied on luxuries and the rich and the idea was to spend the revenue from this tax on the poor. “The imposition of luxury tax is causing loss to the provincial [...]

In a move widely expected, the US has cautioned Pakistan that because of sanctions on Iran, Pakistan should be careful of committing to the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline. However, it is important to note the context of this caution that needs to be exercised. Whenever sanctions are placed by a nation or by the UN Security Council against a certain [...]

Capital Gains is defined as the gain in value you get after selling of an asset having bought it earlier. For example, I buy a plot of land for Rs 1 million in 2006. In 2010, I sell it for Rs 1.2 million. My capital gain is Rs. 0.2 million or 20%. This gain is value wise and does not account for inflation that may have taken place during this [...]

The Economic Survey of Pakistan is available for download on the Ministry of Finance website. The executive summary of the Economic Survey is also available to read online via the Associated Press of Pakistan. Recently there have been a few opinion articles on what the Economic Survey of Pakistan says about the state of the Pakistani economy. [...]

I have tried to put across here is that Transparancy International itself is a big scandal. It makes its report and pass judgement on corruption index on the basis of "perception". Now perception is something which is built by media and can easily be manipulated or influenced. For instance, the TI would never talk about the biggest scandal of the [...]

The PDF document is available to read here Some useful tables from the document: (more...)

As the recession hit; the jobless rates soared to 10% and more, banks at the brink of failing, stock exchange plummeted, and economy was left paralyzed. All this happened in United States, which sparked a global recession, bringing down Europe and Asia along with it. This global recession was worst on developing nations, as they feared to face [...]

The following article has been written for LUBP by Riaz Ali Toori, an analyst from Pakistan's Tribal Areas. When a country steps forward, its people flourish, and this is accomplished with impartial and equitable distribution of wealth that helps in improving living standards as more people have access to available resources. (more...)

As the government gets ready to present its third annual budget (2010-2011), reports and estimates for the next fiscal year is the talk of the day for economists and politicians in Pakistan. Besides all the buzz created by media commentary and the editorials, which is mostly negative, Pakistan's economy is said to be stabilizing for which [...]

Relax, I am not going to write an obituary of Free Market Economy, at least not for now. It is also not about stock market crashes. Because these crashes are like fore-shocks that precede a big earthquake. But this about Capitalism which is getting old and hence its derivative the Free Market Economy. The human being owes a lot to Capitalism, [...]

Education Benazir Bhutto promised to allocate 4% of GDP to Education sector; which according to UN each  country must allocate .  According to education policy budget allocation can never be less than the previous year and government has shown a commitment to allocate 7% of GDP by 2015. PDF of education policy 2009 can download from [...]

In all this hoo-ha of NRO, Judicial Activism and yellow journalism, people of Pakistan have forgotten that there is an economy that is running and running well, which to those in perpetual denial will seem unbelievable. According to IMF, Pakistan’s economy is stabilizing however, it remains vulnerable to shocks and is risky for investors. In [...]

LUBP presents a report by the Enforcement and Collection Division-V RTO, Karachi highlighting the ethical and moral position of our sacred cows in Pakistani media. E&C DIVISION-V RTO, KARACHI – MEDIA CASES Minimum Tax Liability / Shortfall – Position of Sales Tax Demand As on 04-05-2010 (Amount in Million Rs.) S. No Name [...]

There cannot be a human rights violation greater than the enslavement of a people. All the categories of rights and freedoms are lost or snatched away with a single stroke. Such is the plight of Baloch and other stateless nations, subjugated by colonial powers in the past centuries, our forced acculturation, and our annexation into alien political [...]

Dr. Meekal Aziz Ahmed worked in the Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan and was later Senior Advisor to Executive Director in the IMF. He holds a D.Phil in Economics from Oxford University. Dr. Ahmed has very kindly written this article for LUBP. We will be archiving this article and other articles about the economy on our new economics [...]

There is a huge question mark on the power generation as compared to the rated installed capacity which is very much high as against the demand of the country. The reason of short fall is only non payment to older Independent Power Producers (IPPs) as well as the dispute of rate of per unit of electricity IPPs are selling to the Government of [...]