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The sad saga ofrental powerplants Page 2

Saturday, 07 April, 2012

KARACHI

ISMAIL DILAWAR

hOPeS for a sustainablepeace thus prosperityin the poverty-strickenSouth asian region

can be refreshed India andPakistan, the two traditionalnuclear-armed arch-rivals, are allset to mend the decades-old dentsin their bilateral ties throughpromoting trade and culturalexchanges.New Delhi and Islamabad,perhaps having developed a long-awaited regional approach, areworking vigorously on tradeliberalization and other positivesthat, officials across the Line ofControl (LoC) are upbeat, wouldnot only help the two countriesbridge the ages-old mutual “trustdeficit” but also from each other’shuge but still untapped trade andbusiness potential.having decided to open the“second gate” at Wahga bordersometimes during this month,Pakistan and India have almostconcluded negotiations on theissuance of business visas, a majorstumbling block for thebusinessmen and traders on twosides of the LoC.

Further, a group of over 60 Indianexhibitors would arrive in Karachiin July, most probably on 12th, tolook for ways to promote trade andinvestment between the twocountries.“the second gate of Wahga border

would be opened in april to makethe mutual exports morefacilitated,” tariq Puri, CeO tradeDevelopment authority ofPakistan (tDaP), told a “curtainraiser” press briefing of tDaP’sinitiative Lifestyle Pakistan, thecountry’s first mega lifestyleexhibition cultural program beingheld in India on a government-to-government level.the event is due from april 12 to15 in New Delhi’s Pragati Madanat, what Puri said, a “customizedarea” stretching over 8000 squarekilometer where more than 100top of the line Pakistani exhibitorswould showcase the “Best ofPakistan“.also, Friday marked a sort of start-up in the mutual trade as thetDaP chief said two 40-feetcontainers, carrying 70 percent ofthe goods to be stalled at theexhibition, crossed the Wahgaborder to reach India. Whereas theexhibitors claimed to have sold outall of the exhibit-able stuff, Puri

said the Indian government hadallowed Pakistani exhibitors toretail their products which wouldbe subject to applicable taxes.according to Puri, the event wasbeing held with cooperation oftDaP and Indian tradeProportion Organization inreciprocity to the “Made in IndiaShow” held recently by the Indianside in Lahore.Led by tDaP, the Pakistanidelegation would comprise anorganized team of traders,businessmen, fashion designers,models, cooks and other related tocultural and trade sectors. theexhibition would formally open onapril 12 in the presence ofMakhdoom amin Fahim andanand Sharma, the commerceministers of Pakistan and India.the Pakistani brands to beshowcased include Gul ahmed,alKaram, hub Leather, Khaadi,Chen One, Bonanza, JunaidJamshed Lawn, Orient textiles,Nishat textiles, Faiza Same,honey Waqar, asim Jofa andothers. “We have a lot to offer toIndia where Pakistani lawns,Khaadi and shoes are morepopular,” said tehmina Khalid.Others who termed theneighboring country as a huge

market for Pakistani goods includeNadia hussain, asad Sajjad,Farrukh, Farida Qureshi, Nasr,Rahat, Younas Basher, SalmanJunaid, Faiza Samee, Shehzad,Zeba hussain, and Ziad Basher ofGul ahmed.Puri said 32 of the Pakistanidelegates were from the rice sectorwho would discuss with the Indianside’s cooperation on theutilization and installation of ricesteaming plants, brow oil plantsand rice refineries.asked if the two sides had a will topermanently overcome thetraditional bottlenecks likeissuance of visas etc, Puri repliedin positive. “the business visaswould be issued within a month orso,” he told Pakistan today.earlier, he said two special bankbranches at Pragati Madan wouldbe facilitating the Pakistanidelegates on their remittancerelated issues. the first delegationwould leave for India on Monday,april 9, in a big plane to bechartered by tDaP. Sidra Iqbal oftDaP told the briefing that asimilar curtain raiser mediawould also be held on april 10 inIndia’s ItC Moria hotel wheremost of the Pakistani delegateswould be staying.

Opening the gate toSouth Asian prosperity

What good is wisdom, when it brings noprofit to the wise? If only thegovernment had employed its ambitious

trade outreach (displayed of late) in earlier years,the revenue situation would not have been so tight.Yet dwelling in the past is hardly any morerewarding. Which brings us to the present, whichbetrays a clear understanding in Islamabad thatwithout reorienting trade markets, deficits willmake survival near-impossible. the downside isthat the initiative to expand market outreach is notmatched by an equally spirited drive to leverageindustry and manufacturing to add value to thepresent export basket.after China, India and Russia, australia is indeedthe ideal market for Pakistan to penetrate. It hasformed an integral part of the emerging marketcomplex, asia’s expanding economies that led theinitial bottoming out of the ’08 recession. It is thecentre of the global commodity trade, whosesymbiotic relationship with China’s furious growthsustained increased production and employmentacross the continent. For Pakistan to gain easyaccess to its market can ideally be reciprocated byopening our markets for its commodity endowment,an exercise that can work to ideal mutual benefit.to even think of such an arrangement, Pakistan willhave to initiate serious fiscal expansion programs,which will then tap the all important asia-Pacificcommodity trade. Fiscal expansion, of course, works only whencomplemented by an appropriate monetary policy.that in turn implies that the government will haveto overcome some of its more blatant excesses, orthe entire sequence of events stemming fromexpanding markets will fall off track. So long as thegovernment is borrowing in bulk, the central bank’spolicy is compromised. and so long as it fails tocheck needless leakages in the real economy, therewill be little fiscal elbow room for correctiveadventures. Once we take some essential steps, notonly will we engage more with emerging markets,but also stand among them.

cOmmENt

Emerging markets

g Pakistan, India near accord on issuing business visas, opening second gate of Wahga borderg India to help Pakistan install rice steaming plants, brow oil plants and rice refineries g Over60 Indian exhibitors due in Karachi in July g First Lifestyle Pakistan shipment reaches India

BUILDING BRIDGES

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news02Saturday, 07 April, 2012

The sad saga of rental power plants

ISLAMABAd

AMER SIAL

aS expected, the govern-ment approved a massivefinancial guarantee of overRs 200 billion for procur-

ing 7.7 million tons of wheat from in-fluential growers, in an election year,even though the commodity pur-chase issue stand transferred to theprovinces after the devolution.

the decision was made at theagriculture lobby dominated, eco-nomic Coordination Committee ofthe Cabinet (eCC) which met underthe chairmanship of Finance Minis-ter Dr. abdul hafeez Shaikh.

the committee also approvedunprecedented incentives for kickstarting natural gas import projectsby exempting from sales tax andfederal excise duty on imported nat-ural gas through pipelines and LNG.Collection of applicable taxes, dutiesand any other levies were deferredtill the commencement of commer-cial operations of the natural gasand LNG import projects, on theanalogy of such facility provided topower projects by eCC in July 2009.ePC contractors involved in the gasimport projects were exemptedfrom sales tax, while custom dutieswere exempted on hR coils, linepipe, pylons piles. While temporaryimportation of plant, equipment,machinery, LNG terminals and pe-ripheral infrastructures were al-lowed for the projects duty free onimport cum export basis.

eCC also approved the summaryfor the extension of date of comple-tion of BYCO oil Pakistan Limited toavail 7.6 years tax holiday. It also ap-

proved low BtU gas pricing policyunder which the price has been in-creased from $ 2.5 mmBtU to $ 8.75mmBtU. this will promote invest-ment in low BtU reserves and esti-mated 800 mmcfd supplies areexpected to be utilised mainly by thepower sector. It also approved fort-nightly price adjustment of petro-leum products, even though Oil andGas Regulatory authority had reser-vations over the move and it wasstressing maintaining prices on quar-terly basis to protect the people fromhigh inflationary impact.

the meeting also decided to liftban on the public sector institutionalinvestment in the national savingschemes. the move is expected to at-tracted Rs 150 billion investmentfrom the public sector institution inthe short term. according to the offi-cial press release, eCC discussed atlength the summary of the Ministryof Food Security and Research on thepublic sector procurement of wheatcrop. after devolution the provinceswere allowed to lift the wheat tomaintain strategic reserves. themeeting debated on the extension ofcredit cash guarantees to theprovinces for purchasing wheat afterthe increase in the support price ofwheat from Rs 950 to Rs 1050 per 40kg. after much deliberation eCCagreed to approve the summary.

an official source said that thefederal government was under pres-sure to give the credit guarantee, asprocurement of 7.7 million tons ofwheat from influential farmers inSindh and Punjab will guaranteefavourable support from the growersin the upcoming general elections.Pakistan is expected to harvest a

bumper wheat harvest of 25 milliontons. the public sector procurementis usually carried out to maintain sta-bility in wheat prices during the har-vesting season. In the past the wheatprocurement has remained limitedto 5 million tons but for garneringpolitical support in rural areas theprocurement had been enhanced to7 million tons during the last fewyears. the government already hasfaced billions of rupee loss in subsi-dize selling of procured stocks of lastyear to make room for new procure-ment. Due to the low internationalprices there were no chances of ex-ports and the government wouldhave to provide additional subsidy todispose off its stocks next year.

eCC also approved the summaryfor the extension of date of comple-tion of oil refinery BYCO limited toavail 7.6 years tax holiday. the refin-ery was given tax holiday for 7.6years and had as to complete by theend of 2011, however the refinerycould not be commissioned by thestipulated time. the Ministry of Pe-troleum recommended that thecompany may be granted extensionof the facility up to the end of 2012,which was approved after much de-liberation. the meeting among oth-ers was attended by Minister forPetroleum Dr. asim hussain, Minis-ter for Water and Power SyedNaveed Qamar, Minister for Produc-tion anwar Cheema, Minister forPrivatization Ghaus Baksh and Min-ister for Railways Ghulam ahmadBilour, Deputy Chairman PlanningCommission, Secretaries for Rail-ways, Finance, economic affairs Di-vision, Petroleum and otherconcerned officials.

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

The thar Coal projectswhich can reduce theenergy woes of the

country are facing the federalgovernment’s lack of seriousnessand coordination with theprovincial government. theSindh engro Coal MiningCompany which has successfullyreached the thar coal project tothe level of financing during thelast around two years wereunable to achieve the ProjectFinancing and Financial Close ofthe project due to delay inaccomplishment of infrastructuredevelopment and unresolvedcircular debt(of around RS 400billion)in power sector. this wassaid by Khalid Mansoor Presidentengro Fertilizers in presentationto media here on Friday.according to him the otherchallenges faced by the companywere the low investor andfinancial institutions confidencefor new initiatives by engro dueto gas curtailment for its newly

commissioned Fertilizer Projectincluding world’s largest ureaplant with single largest privatesector investment of $1.1 billion.Gas supply to the plantsuspended by 55 percent of thetime by SNGPL sincecommissioning, in spite of thecontractual commitment of thegovernment incurring huge lossesto production. Only 75 percent ofthe agreed quantity was suppliedby SNGPL during the supplyperiod. he informed that despitethe approvals from variousbodies, there was no movementon practical grounds as projectslike installing transmission lines,raw water supply, road networkand effluent disposal wereneeded to have both federal andprovincial governments’ seriousconsiderations. Presently manyquestions were being raised fromvarious corners that why thegovernment was failed togenerate power from the tharcoal and where did theannounced and approved moneygo. the circular debt issue wasone of the key hurdle in the way

of inviting investments frominvestors as even the Board ofInvestment and thar Coal Boardwere citing the debt issue as thebig problem in raising investmentfor thar coal projects. thegovernment’s credibility, he said,was another issue as manyprojects such as IPPs have calledin their sovereign guarantees andother government contractualobligations were just not beingmet in a number of sectors.engro Power would havedifficulty raising financing forthar project due to gascurtailment on its new plant.talking about the current statusof the engro project, thepresident said that, thebankable feasibility study of theproject which will supply coal toat least 1200 MW mine-mouthpower plant to be set up byengro Powergen by 2016.SeCMC has engaged severalinternational consultants suchas Sinocoal China and RWe-ReGmbh of Germany which hascompleted the technicalfeasibility of the project. theexpected date of completion ofthe coal mining and powerproject is 2016 at a cost of $3billion. the SeCMC project wasready to commence and close togetting into the projectexecution stage being able toattract financing and investors.

Wheating the appetiteof farmers, industrialistsg Govt approves Rs 200b guarantee for procurement of 7.7m tonnes of wheat

Seriously?g Thar Coal projects facing govt’s lack of seriousness

LAHORe

STAFF REPORT

The Lahore Chamber ofCommerce and IndustryFriday welcomed the sus-

pension of controversial SRO191(I)2012 and appreciated the Fi-nance Minister for giving patienthearing to all the LCCI demands.In a statement issued here, theLCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikhsaid that the decision to suspend

the SRO 191 would go a long way ingiving boost to economic activitiesin the country as seeking Comput-erised National Identity Card num-bers or National tax Numbers ofthe unregistered buyers, manufac-turers, importers and exporterswas practically impossible. theLCCI President said that the Fed-eral Finance Minister Dr abdulhafeez Sheikh had also promisedto look into the other LCCI budgetproposals including reduction in

turnover tax from existing 1 percent to 0.5 per cent. he said thatthe Lahore Chamber of Commerceand Industry had conveyed to theMinister that the SRO 111 pertain-ing to whitening of capital throughtelegraphic transfer (tt) shouldbe withdrawn in order to promotetax culture and broaden the tax net.Withholding tax for commercialimporters should be equivalent tomanufacturers. annexure D of theIncome tax Return should also bewithdrawn. Irfan Qaiser Sheikhsaid that the Lahore Chamber hasalso demanded the withdrawal ofSales tax on Local and Importedmachinery to strengthen and reju-venate the process of industrializa-tion in the country.

Take a bow, doc!g LCCI chief pats Hafeez on the back over SRO 191 suspension

Syed OvAIS AKHtAR

PaKIStaN has been plagued withpower generation problems sincedecades. Due to the continuingpower deficit, our industries have

been brought to the brink of collapse andthe common people suffer non-stop. en-ergy is the driving force behind national de-velopment but sadly Pakistan lags farbehind on this front. the country has, foryears, not been able to crack the electricityriddle and the situation has gone from badto worse over the years. the country’s lead-ers have never grasped the idea of sustain-able development in its true spirit and thepeople have been led to unending anguishdue to their lack of vision.

One intelligent scheme that seemedperfect in theory was the introduction ofrental power plants (RPPs) that was consid-ered feasible to bridge the demand-supplygap. It was near the end of the Musharraf erawhen RPPs emerged as a viable option asopposed to further investment in IPPs.however, the actual implementation of thescheme took place under the present PPP-led government. Many experts had pointedout in the beginning, when RPP licenceswere in the process of being issued, that theRPPs would turn to be just another way oftaking corruption to the next level. as itturns out, they were absolutely right.

On March 30, 2011, the Supreme Courtdeclared the Rental Power Plants as illegaland all functioning RPPs were ordered to beimmediately shut down. the decision washistoric in the sense that it will now discour-age corruption through such means and alsoforce the government to invest in long-termsolutions to cap the energy crisis.

In principle, if they had been imple-

mented correctly, RPPs would have helpedPakistan in meeting the energy shortfall.Rental power plants are typically installedwithin 4 to six months and are ideal formeeting short-term electricity needs. theyutilize resources in the optimum mannerwhile involving little or no land. Local em-ployment generation is another positiveaspect of RPPs. however, plant costs keepon increasing when expensive fuel is usedto run these plants. Pakistan stood to ben-efit from these projects as technically onlythe amount of electricity supplied would beliable for payment. But bad decision-mak-ing and gross mismanagement on the gov-ernment’s part made the whole scheme acomplete mess.

In 2008, a committee headed by PrimeMinister Yousuf Raza Gilani agreed to theinstallation of 14 rental power plants thatwould produce 1,500 MW of electricity. ayear later in September 2009, RPPs with acollective production capacity of 2,250 MWwere approved by the cabinet. Unsolicitedoffers were also entertained which led to theacceptance of 5 more projects by the eco-nomic Coordination Council (eCC). In theend, a total of 19 RPPs with a collective ca-pacity of 2,734 MW were sanctioned.

Renowned banker Shaukat tarin, whoassumed charge as Finance Minister in Oc-tober 2008, had strongly opposed the gov-ernment’s idea of installing RPPs at suchhigh cost. though the federal cabinet had al-ready approved issue of RPP licencesin august 2008, it was on his insis-tence that the Prime Ministerasked the asian DevelopmentBank to conduct an audit of theentire RPP scheme. as a result ofthe audit, it emerged that out ofa collective capacity of the almost

2,800 MW that had been sanctioned only800 MW offered operational feasibility.

It is quite distressful to know, however,that while it was Shaukat tarin who tried towean away the government from issuing li-cences to RPPs as it spelt disaster from dayone, he now seems to have been ‘punished’for his good advice and put on eCL in wakeof the probe that the Supreme Court has or-dered NaB to conduct in the RPP scam.

according to news reports, the Gov-ernment of Pakistan ended up paying Rs.21.8 billion to the RPPs in mobilisation ad-vance with bank loans taken against assetsof the National transmission and DispatchCompany (NtDC). even aftersuch huge sums were trans-ferred to the RPPs, noneof these power plantsfunctioned at theirfull capacity andonly produced 120MW of electricityin total. Karkey wasproducing an aver-age of 48 MW com-pared to its actualcapacity of 231MW and that too atan expensive rateof Rs.35 to 50/unit.a n o t h e rR P P ,

Gulf had a capacity of 62 MW but was gen-erating only 50 MW while Reshma PowerPlant was producing a measly 14 MW com-pared to its actual 201 MW capacity.

What had started as a promising proj-ect simply drowned in a sea of corruption.the electricity they produced was pur-chased by the government at exorbitantrates. the country spent billions of rupeeson the RPPs but ended up getting literallynothing in return. a few megawatts ofelectricity were not worth the huge andunreasonable amount spent from an al-ready overburdened treasury.

time and again a huge hue and cry wasraised over the inefficient production of

these RPPs. along with the lacunaepointed out by Finance Minister

Shaukat tarin, other quartersalso described the wholescheme was rife with corrup-tion but the Government ofPakistan failed to take noticeand the high cost of theplants was passed on to theunfortunate consumers.With increasing electricity

shortfall, protests against loadshedding became common-

place. the current violentprotests in Punjab are witness to

the poor state of affairs. RPPs werea continuing burden on the

national exchequer andbecause of them,

p r o d u c -tion of

t h ee x -ist-

ing Independent Power Plants (IPPs) suf-fered. It is certainly unfortunate that in-stead of using Pakistan’s rich hydelresources as well as gas and coal reservesto produce electricity, we use the most ex-pensive fuel – furnace oil. according to ex-perts, the government should have focusedmore on providing gas to the independentpower producers (IPPs) rather than invest-ing in quixotic projects. there would alsobe hope in future energy production if newprojects had been established by the pres-ent government when it assumed power.the government instead spent precious re-sources on the failed RPPs while high rank-ing officials managed to steal billions ofrupees for their personal gain.

the Supreme Court has declared allRental Power Projects (RPPs) in the coun-try illegal in its verdict. In the court’slearned view, the agreements between thePakistan government and the owners ofRPPs were ‘non-transparent’, ‘illegal’ and‘ultra vires of the Constitution’. theSupreme Court has observed that there wasmassive corruption taking place and it wasnever the purpose of those indulging in thiscorruption to bridge the demand-and-sup-ply. the Chief Justice especially noted thatGenco, Pepco, Wapda, Nepra and the fed-eral government were responsible for thecorruption of billions of rupees.

the Supreme Court in its ruling has di-rected the government to take effectivemeasures to arrest corruption and pilferagein the power sector. If properly imple-mented, this landmark decision will surelybenefit Pakistan for years to come. Whetheror not the implementation is carried out re-mains to be seen but one does hope that ourgovernment will now wake up and, for once,will think about the future of Pakistan.

DR YES

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news

Saturday, 07 April, 2012

03

PtcL honored with 10th teradata National It Excellence Award 2012

KARACHI: Pakistan telecommunication CompanyLimited (PtCL) has been honored with the “10 th ter-adata National It excellence award” for its 3G eVOWireless Broadband Internet project by world’s leadinganalytic data solutions company , teradata. at a galaevent recently held at Karachi Golf & Country Club,PtCL’s Senior Manager Wireless Products, Shafqaat h.Shah received the award from chief guest on the occa-sion U.S. Consul General Karachi, William Martin, andMD teradata Pakistan, afghanistan & Bangladesh,Khurram Rahat. the award recognizes PtCL’s effectiveprogram ma nagement and product launch of Pak-istan’s strongest brand names in the telecom world -PtCL 3G evo Wireless Broadband Internet. this proj-ect resulted in the fastest, most comprehensive and in-novative telecom product launched by PtCL, which hasrevolutionized the lives of Pakistani people and has putthe country on the path of progress. PRESS RELEASE

OIccI facilitates mUFAP’s Public AwarenessSeminar in association with the cDc KARACHI: In order to facilitate members understand-ing of options for personal tax benefits and retirementfunds investment avenues, the Overseas InvestorsChamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI), in collab-oration with the Mutual Funds association of Pakistan(MUFaP) organized a seminar on the subject of “MutualFunds and Voluntary Pension Schemes”, on Wednesday4th april, 2012 at the OICCI office. this customizedevent for OICCI members was attended by a large num-ber of senior executives of OICCI member companiesand MUFaP members. PRESS RELEASE

Samsung Galaxy Note Studio – A creative extravaganza in KarachiLAHORE: the Samsung GaLaXY Note Studiokicked off at Park towers, Karachi after its tremen-dous success in Lahore. the event showcased multiplehi-tech features of the first tablet and smart phone hy-

brid from Samsung - “the Galaxy Note”. Using thisdevice, one can draw caricatures and compose musicwith multiple instruments. the event revolved aroundthe revolutionary digital “Caricature feature”. as theexcited visitors thronged the splendid ceremonies,skilled artists were engaged for drawing caricatures,using the Galaxy Note. these caricatures were alsoprinted on mugs and t-shirts, for presenting as sou-venirs. Samsung’s “S Pen” technology fascinated thevisitors. Various media personalities and celebritiesalso graced the occasion, and special discounts werealso offered on the purchase of the smartphone. Sam-sung Pakistan’s head of hhP & It, Mr. Roy Changsaid; “after receiving an overwhelming response atthe Lahore and Karachi Studio events, we are inspiredto introduce more creative galaxy Note fans. this de-vice simplifies the capturing and sharing of creativeideas, through images, designs and text.”

cGmA Global Economic Forecast showscautious optimism for year aheadKARACHI: the CGMa Global economic Forecast, aquarterly survey of more than 600 senior manage-ment accountants from around the world, has founda cautious level of optimism for the global economyover the coming 12 months. the overall index score isup seven points to 65, from 58 in the last quarter, ac-cording to research from the Chartered Institute ofManagement accountants (CIMa) and the americanInstitute of Certified Public accountants (aICPa). theIndex is compiled as an aggregate of ten economic di-mensions on a scale from 0 to 100, with 50 consideredneutral and numbers above that indicating positivesentiment. the ten factors include: global economicoptimism, domestic economic optimism, organisa-tional optimism, plans for expansion, revenue, profits,headcount, spending on It, other capital and trainingand development. PRESS RELEASE

Women made marble mosaic products in EXPO 2012ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Stone Development Com-pany (PaSDeC) will display the marble mosaic prod-ucts in eXPO 2012, which are made by womentrainees at marble mosaic workshop. PaSDeC in col-laboration with UNIDO is promoting marble mosaicskill development in women. In this connection, themarble mosaic and Inlay training sessions have beencompleted successfully. On the occasion of inauguralceremony of exhibition, PaSDeC will also distributethe course completion certificates among marble mo-saic trained women who have completed their trainingduring current sessions. the UNIDO-Women entre-preneurship Programme is organizing a national expoin the federal capital on april 7 and 8 in collaboration

with the Islamabad Women Chambers of Commerceand Industry and PaSDeC. this year’s expo titled as“Women in Creative Industry” and envisages the ideaof brining together the women entrepreneurs fromacross Pakistan on one platform. UNIDO’s WeD Pro-gramme will be displaying its marble mosaic, inlay,gems and jewelry and homes textiles products thathave been prepared by its trained women. STAFF REPORT

British High commissioner visits PBItLAHORE: British high Commissioner to Pakistanadam thomson visited the office of Punjab Board ofInvestment & trade(PBIt) and held meeting withsenior officials. Vice Chairman PBIt, Dr. Miftah Is-mail informed the distinguished guest that Punjabpresents a good investment proposition with expand-ing consumer base, improving domestic and foreigninvestment and growing trade intensity. Dr. Ismailsaid Punjab Government’s liberal and investmentfriendly incentives pave way for large scale investmentprojects whereas the margins of small and medium in-vestment are also very high. Chief executive OfficerPBIt, Dr. Sajid Yoosufani gave a detailed briefing oninvestment opportunities in Punjab and highlightedinvestments from the UK in Pakistan which includesICI, Premier Oil, Barclays, Pakistan tobacco Com-pany, hSBC, Unilever, Reckitt & Benckiser and Stan-dard Chartered Bank. the British high Commissionerwas also apprised of the number of British Companiesfacilitated by PBIt in Punjab. adam thomson saidthat Pakistan and Britain have longstanding relation-ship spread over decades and some common traits;both the countries need to develop better economicand social ties. he said Pakistan is suffering fromimage and perception problem which is hindering for-eign investment in this region. he said his visit toPBIt has been fruitful in terms of gaining more claritytowards investment opportunities and understandingoverall economic climate of Punjab .he appreciatedthe positive attitude of PBIt’s leadership towardsbringing investment in Punjab and catering to in-vestor needs. STAFF REPORT

tEDxmargalla inspires the twin citiesISLAMABAD: teDxMargalla was organized at alocal cinema, bringing together some of the bright-est minds in Pakistan to share ways in which wecould ‘Rethink Pakistan’. teDxMargalla featuredsome of Pakistan’s most prominent personalities,including asad Umar (CeO engro Corp), Prof. adilNajam (Vice Chancellor LUMS), Sami Shah, Khal-ida Brohi and others, who shared their vision onthe way Pakistan could work towards a more pros-perous future. the event was attended by over 100people belonging to various walks of life, whocame together to hear innovative ideas to reformPakistan. PRESS RELEASE

CORPORATE CORNER

Major Gainers

Company Open High Low Close Change Turnover

Nestle PakXD 4319.29 4499.00 4276.00 4421.30 102.01 3,417Bata (Pak)SPOT 623.01 654.16 644.99 654.16 31.15 1,166Island Textile 214.65 225.38 215.00 225.19 10.54 1,265Sanofi-Aventis 159.61 167.59 165.99 167.59 7.98 4,598Lucky Cement 121.95 128.04 120.88 127.57 5.62 4,765,139

Major Losers

UniLever Pak LtdXD 5676.80 5899.99 5511.00 5572.80 -104.00 21Tri-Pack Films XD 206.91 207.00 201.00 201.15 -5.76 3,050Philip Morris Pak. 114.10 108.40 108.40 108.40 -5.70 400Gillette Pak 69.87 67.00 66.40 66.55 -3.32 400EFU General InsXD 93.96 94.90 90.05 90.91 -3.05 10,960

Volume Leaders

Dewan Cement 5.72 6.72 5.80 6.70 0.98 36,584,683WorldCall Telecom 3.46 4.01 3.46 3.96 0.50 34,388,080Pace (Pak) Ltd. 3.28 3.90 3.32 3.71 0.43 32,114,201Summit Bank Ltd 4.15 4.78 4.00 4.63 0.48 22,468,625Jah.Sidd. Co. 21.78 21.98 20.75 20.93 -0.85 19,209,585

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 90.5350UK Pound 143.5162Japanese Yen 1.0978euro 118.3293

Dollar EastBuy Sell

US Dollar 90.50 91.10Euro 120.16 121.48Great Britain Pound 144.11 145.73Japanese Yen 1.0839 1.0957Canadian Dollar 90.15 91.65Hong Kong Dollar 11.49 11.67UAE Dirham 24.56 24.83Saudi Riyal 24.06 24.30Australian Dollar 93.15 94.61

KARACHI

STAFF REPORTER

FRIDaY witnessed abullish activity at theKarachi stocks marketwhere the benchmark

index hit the intraday high of14,000 points on the backofrenewed institutional andforeign interest.Last trading day of the week sawKSe 100-share index gaining44.06 points to close at 13,875.53points against 13,831.47 points ofthursday.“the stocks closed bullish as KSe100 crossed the record 14,000

level on intra-day activity,” saidahsan Mehanti, director at arifhabib Investments.the intraday high and low wasrecorded, respectively, at14,020.34 and 13,831.12 points.Mehanti said renewedinstitutional and foreign interestlead by blue-chip oil and cementstocks led the market on a bull-run ahead of key quarter endearning announcements due nextweek.“Report of expected approval ofrise in natural gas by 30 percentand hopes for earlyannouncements on revised CGtimplementation affected the

sentiments,” viewed the analyst.Other attributable that played asa catalyst for the day’s bullishsentiments at KSe include higherglobal commodities, rising localand export cement prices andexpectations for strongerquarter-end results.the trading volumes at theready-counter were recorded at433.01 million shares against457.944 million shares of theprevious day. the trading valuedecreased to Rs 7.439 billionagainst Rs 9.375 billion onWednesday.the market capital increased toRs 3.565 trillion from thursday’s

Rs 3.549 trillion. Of the total 362traded scrips, 179 gained, 115 lostand 68 finished as unchanged.the free-float KSe-30 index alsoshed 2.21 points to finish at12,183.37 points against12,181.16 points of a day earlier.Dewan Cement appeared as theday’s volume leader by having itstraded shares counted at 36.58million with the opening andclosing rates standing,respectively, at Rs 5.72 and Rs6.70.the trading volume on the futuremarket also slid to 23.252 millionshares compared to 26.382million shares of thursday.

Bulls tumble 14,000ptbarrier, lift index up 44pts

How muchshould a 20kgflour bag cost?

LAHORe

STAFF REPORT

the Punjab government hasconstituted a special committee todetermine the new price of 20

kilograms flour bag keeping in view theincrease in the price of electricity andpetroleum products.the committee comprises of MNa SaudMajeed, Secretary Punjab FoodDepartment, Secretary Industries,Director Food Punjab, senior officials ofthe provincial finance department andPunjab Flour Mills association (PFMa)Chairman abdul Jabbar, asim Razaahmad, Liaquat ali Khan and others.the committee will meet on april 07,2012 to submit its recommendations inthis regard and it is hoped that the newprice of twenty kilograms flour bag wouldbe fixed at Rs 625 per bag, said aspokesman of the PFMa here onthursday evening.earlier PFMa Punjab in a meeting thismorning attended by its Chairman Ch.abdul Jabbar, asim ahmad Raza andothers decided to enforce new price of 20kilograms bag at Rs 625 per bag due toincrease in electricity and petroleumproducts. the association had to increasethe prices on March 26, 2012 and later onfurther increased decided to enforce newprice from today.Nevertheless, Punjab government sensingthe situation called another meetingtoday which was chaired by the Senioradvisor to the Chief Minister PunjabSardar Zulfikar ali Khan Khosa andparticipated by both flour millers andgovernment departments to discuss theissue. Flour milling industry presentedtheir case quoting increase in electricityand petroleum products prices as thereason behind raising flour prices.the government constituted a committeeto discuss the issue and submit itsrecommendations in a meeting to be heldon april 07, 2012. Flour millers arehopeful that the new price would beannounced in this meeting.

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