01

BUSINESS

BThursday, 21 March, 2013

Govt focusing on economic diplomacy to promote economic

interests. – Aizaz Ahmed, additional foreign secretary

KARACHI

ISMAIL DILAWAR

KARACHI Port Trust(KPT) ChairmanJaved Hanif Khan re-duced the 14-memberBoard of Directors ofthe Karachi Dock

Labour Board (KDLB) into a rubberstampbody by awarding “illegally” over Rs 2.2million to a retired KDLB official with astroke of a pen.

Muhammad Safdar, who had retired asa secretary or executive officer of theKDLB after reaching the age of superannu-ation on March 31, 2011, appears to be ben-eficiary of the royal bounty shown by theKPT chairman.

“The Chairman has approved re-fixa-tion of the pay of executive officer and pay-ment of the difference amount of pay and

allowances and pension/commutation tothe officer,” reads an office order issued bythe KDLB’s Personnel and Admin depart-ment on the 3rd of last month.

The sanctioned amount granted to Saf-dar is in excess of Rs 2.256 million, ofwhich over Rs 1.367 million and Rs 0.888million were paid, respectively, on accountof difference of pay and allowances anddifference of pension commutation. Thepayment was made through the payee ac-count cheque.

It is, however, interesting to note thatSafdar had already received 100 percent ofhis claims against pension/commutation inMarch 2011 when he had retired fromKDLB service.

“Enclosed please find claim of 100 per-cent commutation of the subject employeeduly sanctioned by the competent author-ity,” reads an earlier office order issued onJune 9, 2011 by the same department of theKDLB.

Copies of the two orders, Part-II Num-ber 48/2011 and Part-I Number 11, areavailable with Pakistan Today.

The KDLB secretary, who after enjoy-ing a two-year extension has finally beensent packing from March 31 (2013) by a re-cent verdict of the Sindh High Court (SHC)

barring his third-time extension, had thenreceived over Rs 7.33 million against hispost-retirement 100 percent claims.

The latest payment of over Rs 2.256million Safdar has been awarded by theKPT chairman was made by the KDLB asa “difference” amount arising out of the 40percent raise the PPP-led federal govern-ment had announced for government em-ployees in the last two fiscal budgets.

A sitting board member of the KDLBclaims that payment of the huge sum madein favor of the outgoing secretary KDLBunder the head of “difference of pay and al-lowances of pension/commutation” was il-legal.

Referring to the KDLB Act 1973,which governs the running of the LabourBoard, the board member said the KPTchairman was not entitled to granting mil-lions to any of his blue eyed boys withoutapproval of the KDLB board.

“The board and not the chairman(KPT) is the competent authority for takingall such decisions,” he asserted adding thateven the KDLB’s Administrative Bodycould not bypass the 14-member apex bodyin terms of decisions pertaining to KDLB’saffairs.

He recalled that even the Administra-

tive Body had rejected Safdar’s demandover a couple of weeks ago.

“The KPT chairman must quote a pieceof law under which he bypassed the Boardand approved such a huge amount to him,”the member said.

He went on to claim that even the useof the KPT chairman’s discretionary fundwas limited, under the relevant laws, to Rs50,000 with that of secretary KDLB notmore than Rs 20,000.

Moreover, a source privy to the matterclaimed that Safdar was demanding someRs 2.6 million more from KDLB as a dif-ference amount. “The KDLB’s Chief Ac-countant and Audit Officer have expressedstrong reservations over the fresh demand,”the source said.

Further, the outgoing secretary also hasa claim over a government car that, he be-lieves, should be given to a retired federalgovernment employee in accordance withthe relevant rules. The KPT, KDLB, PortQasim Authority, Pakistan National Ship-ping Corporation, Pakistan InternationalAirline etc are federal agencies governedby the federal laws.

Rubbishing the outgoing executive of-ficer’s claims, the KDLB board membercontended that the difference was not ap-

plicable in case of Safdar who had retiredmuch before the federal employees weregiven salary increase by the political gov-ernment.

“He (Safdar) had retired when thesalary raise took effect from July 2011,” heargued.

Despite repeated attempts, no one fromKPT’s Public Relations department wasavailable for comments.

KPT chairman awards millionsto ex-official ‘illegally’

CHAIRMAN CANNOTGRANT HUGE SUMSSANS BOARD’S NOD,SAYS A MEMBER

The KDLB secretary, whoafter enjoying a two-year

extension has finally beensent packing from March

31 (2013) by a recentverdict of the Sindh HighCourt (SHC) barring his

third-time extension

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR),whose tax refunds are higher than its col-lections, is going to make public thenames of some six million tax evadersunder its “Name & Shame Programme”.

An FBR official revealed this atKarachi Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry (KCCI) on Wednesday. The offi-cial said the FBR had collected data ofsix million tax evaders to whom noticeswould soon be served and in case of afailure to pay the minimum taxes theywould be shamed by their names be madepublic under the Board’s “Name &Shame Programme”.

Further, he said the FBR’s tax re-funds had exceeded the tax amount col-lected by the Board.

“This points out loopholes in the sys-tem and the indulgence of some FBR of-ficials in corruption,” Muhammad RazaBaqir, Member Inland Revenue, Opera-tion at the FBR, said in a meeting withbusinessmen led by President KCCIMuhammad Haroon Agar at the KarachiChamber.

His remarks came after the KCCIPresident expressed his reservations overthe FBR’s recently-issued “discrimina-tory” SROs to give amnesty tosome blue-eyed taxpayers.

Asking the KCCIfor proposals on thecontroversial SROs,Baqir viewed thatif the chambersand associationscould take re-sponsibility andverify the gen-uine cases, theFBR could re-lease refundclaims and a rele-vant system can beinstalled at the KCCI.

He said the tax-to-GDPratio was very low; out of 180million Pakistanis the percent of taxpay-ers was only 0.7. He said 25 percent rev-enue was collected from taxes levied onpetroleum products.

Baqir said 50 percent of the exportswere from textile sector which was zero-rated. There were 130 to 140 items falling

under zero-rating.The FBR official said fake and flying

invoices and corruption could not beeliminated as the FBR lacked the capac-ity to check frauds.

If they didn’t pay the minimum taxesunder amnesty scheme, the FBR would

make their names public, hewarned.

Baqir said FBR hadno choice but to give

amnesty and the de-partment did nothold the capacityto handle newsix million tax-payers.

MuhammadHaroon Agar

President KCCIsaid business com-

munity was con-cerned over and had

rejected the recent con-troversial SROs, numbering

212(I)/2013, 154(I)/2013 and98(I)/2013, issued unilaterally by theFBR.

The FBR has recently issued SRO179(I)/2013 to provide amnesty to suchfraudulent elements allowing them to payjust two percent Sales Tax instead of fivepercent as levied under SRO

1125(I)/2011.“The discriminatory SROs being is-

sued one after another were tantamountto adding up further to the sufferings andmultiple threats already faced by thebusiness community in the city,” Agarsaid.

He asserted to rescind the aforemen-tioned SROs and immediately consult allthe concerned stakeholders in this regard.

Sweeping changes in taxation policyand rules through number aforemen-tioned and other SROs had caused a neg-ative impact on business and industrialactivities due to higher rates of sales taxand assigning the role of withholdingagent to exporters, importers, suppliersand processors.

He demanded that all SRO’s andchanges made in rates of Sales Tax, In-come Tax and rules introduced after 31stDecember, 2012 must be held inabeyance and their implementationshould be deferred until consultations areheld with all stakeholders, chambers andtrade bodies.

Former President KCCI Majyd Aziz,Senior Vice President Shamim Firpo,Vice President Nasir Mehmood and theManaging Committee Members andKCCI’s members from trade and industryparticularly from textiles, chemicals andyarns also participated in the meeting.

FBR ready to name and shame 6 million tax thieves

Out of 180 million Pakistanis,

only 0.7 percent

pay their taxes

PCF constitutedfor protection ofpublic rightsKARACHI: Representatives of differentconsumers associations on Wednesdayconstituted Pakistan Consumers Federa-tion (PCF) for protection of consumersrights in the country. During the meeting, NGOs actively in-volved for protection of consumer rightsand raising public awareness about theirrights as consumers were also present.They unanimously agreed to form a jointplatform, “Pakistan Consumers Federa-tion,” so as to strongly plead the con-sumers’ cause. All major organizationsConsumers Association of Pakistan,Helpline Trust, Consumer Foundation,National Forum for Environment andHealth and Consumers Forum signed ajoint declaration that sought promulgationof relevant laws at federal and provinciallegislature by the forthcoming elected as-semblies. It was agreed that awareness atall levels has to be created to curb themenace of counterfeit and fake productsbesides protecting people against ex-ploitation in form of profiteering. The signatories agreed that campaignswould be initiated on immediate basis soas to ensure that these issues are adoptedon priority by the public representatives innext few months time. It was also agreedthat efforts would be made to sensitizemasses about their rights as consumersand their responsibility to acquire these.Involvement of all government institu-tions, forums, accreditation bodies andimplementation groups would also betaken on board, agreed the signatories.The resolution was strongly endorsed byFPCCI’s standing committee on “BrandsProtection and Promotion,” and its stand-ing committee on Consumer Rights Pro-tection. The body in collaboration withabove mentioned NGOs had only re-cently organized and extensive session tocommemorate World Consumers Day.On the occasion Shaikh Rashid Alam,chairman FPCCI standing committee onbrands protection and promotion had saidthat safety of consumer rights was a cor-porate responsibility of all industrialgroups. This, he said was as important asthe safety of industries working withdocumented economy and contributing tothe exchequer and safety of intellectualproperty of legitimate brands operatingin marketplace. He on the occasion saidtrend must be curtailed under whichsketchy consumer organizations arebeing created by unscrupulous elementsin their self-interest. APP

SECP makes online filingof returns mandatory for listed firms

KARACHI: The Securities and ExchangeCommission of Pakistan (SECP) has made itmandatory for all listed companies to filedocuments, returns, accounts and applica-tions, meant to be filed with the SECP, orthe Registrar, through SECP’s eServices on-line filing facility.The SECP issued a notification in this re-gard on March 13, 2013. The requirementshall come into effect after two months ofthe date of notification. The requirementhas also been made applicable to companieswhich filed their last statutory documentsthrough eServices or will file any statutorydocument through eServices from the dateof applicability of the notification. Earlier,this requirement was only applicable tocompanies which had been incorporatedthrough eServices online filing facility.The online filing has been made mandatoryto move towards automated regulatoryregime of the SECP, in line with the objec-tive of providing services with efficiencyand in minimum possible time. E-Servicesfiling facility is an easy and hassle-freemode of submission for companies to makestatutory filing, coupled with an added fea-ture of smaller fees as compared to man-ual/physical filing. STAFF REPORT

Guidelines regarding

smuggled cars

on FBR website SIALKOT: All necessary information andguidelines have been placed at FederalBoard of Revenue (FBR) website“www.fbr.gov.pk” for the convenience ofgeneral public with regards to the assess-ment of duties/taxes applicable on vehiclesof different model or engine capacity underthe aforementioned SRO. Collector Customs, Sambrial Dryport,Dr.Sarfraz Ahmad Warraich told APP hereWednesday that on the special directive ofFBR Chief, Ali Arshad Hakeem, a counterunder the supervision of Ejaz Shah, adeputy collector customs has been estab-lished at the collectorate to facilitate andexpedite the process of regulation of smug-gled vehicles within the ambit of law. Hesaid that during the last one week, users ofnearly 59 smuggled vehicles have so far ap-proached for regulation and their applica-tions are now in process as per policy of theFBR. Elaborating, he said that FBR has is-sued guidelines to maintain uniformity inimplementation of the scheme by the fieldformations. APP

16-17 Business Pages (21-03-2013)_Layout 1 3/21/2013 3:19 AM Page 1

BUSINESSThursday, 21 March, 2013

Major Gainers

COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVERRafhan Maize XD 3658.50 3750.00 3750.00 3750.00 91.50 20National FoodsXD 292.72 303.00 303.00 303.00 10.28 19,700Philip Morris Pak. 255.05 267.00 258.00 265.25 10.20 7,500Exide (PAK) 347.00 359.99 348.00 356.41 9.41 7,000Engro Corporation 120.95 126.97 120.00 126.61 5.66 13,920,600

Major LosersUniLever Pak 10908.50 10700.00 10700.00 10700.00 -208.50 60Colgate Palmolive 1832.00 1799.00 1740.40 1740.40 -91.60 450Wyeth Pak Ltd XD 860.00 850.00 850.00 850.00 -10.00 50Clariant PakSPOT 250.00 251.00 241.25 243.20 -6.80 17,100Pak.Int.Cont.SD 202.55 200.05 197.50 197.90 -4.65 4,900

Volume Leaders

Lafarge Pakistan 6.00 6.74 6.02 6.59 0.59 43,729,000P.T.C.L.A 20.31 20.82 19.38 19.65 -0.66 28,769,500TRG Pakistan Ltd. 6.88 7.26 6.80 7.08 0.20 26,435,000Telecard Limited 5.97 6.22 5.21 5.53 -0.44 15,072,000D.G.K.Cement 64.98 68.22 65.25 67.61 2.63 14,674,000

Interbank RatesUSD PKR 98.1935GBP PKR 147.6142JPY PKR 1.0294EURO PKR 126.6205

ForexBUY SELL

US Dollar 99.20 99.45 Euro 127.50 127.75 Great Britain Pound 148.92 149.18 Japanese Yen 1.0257 1.0363 Canadian Dollar 95.39 97.09 Hong Kong Dollar 12.51 12.77 UAE Dirham 26.85 27.10 Saudi Riyal 26.33 26.50

LAHORE: Dr Jeffrey S Hammer, Princeton

University, Dr Masooma Habib, Salman Asim,

World Bank, and Zeba Sathar, Country Director

Population Council at the 9th Annual

Conference on Management of the Pakistan

Economy at the Lahore School of Economics. PR

NBP Exchange opensbranch in BahawalpurBAHAWALPUR: NBP Exchange Company Limited, a

subsidiary of National Bank of Pakistan formally

opened its 15th branch in Bahawalpur to facilitate

the residents of the area for exchange of foreign

currencies and collection of home remittances to its

valued customers, in line with the national objective.

Khalid Bin Shaheen, SEVP/Group Chief NBP and

Chairman NBP Exchange Company Limited

inaugurated the branch. PR

Samsung’s OLED TV obtainedWorld’s First Picture QualityValidation Certificate

LAHORE: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., today

reinforced its superior technology leadership,

receiving the world’s first picture quality validation

for the unrivaled picture quality of its 55 inch OLED

TV. UL, a global independent safety science company,

presented the validation, which is the first for any

OLED TV in the industry and highlights Samsung’s

leadership in the development of next-generation

technology. “Even after maintaining our No. 1

position in the global TV market for more than seven

consecutive years, we refuse to be complacent,” said

Hyugun Lee, senior vice president of Samsung’s

Visual Display Business Division. “This achievement

exemplifies our continued commitment to provide

consumers with industry-leading innovations that

deliver the best picture for the most immersive home

entertainment experience possible.” PR

LAHORE: LESCO CEO Muhammad Saleem with

USAID consultants and technical team on the

eve of installation of modern automatic reading

electricity metres. PR

Nestle Nesvita promotes bone health

LAHORE: Nestle Nesvita Calcium Plus announced

on Monday that it is supporting the International

Osteoporosis Foundation (I0F) by promoting bone

health and spreading awareness about

Osteoporosis. At a ceremony held at the Pearl

Continental Hotel, the NESTLE NESVITA team said

that the awareness campaign will include

informational seminars on Osteoporosis. The

team will also be reaching out to almost 15,000

girls in over 100 colleges, communicating the

importance of daily Calcium intake, spreading

awareness about Osteoporosis and conducting

free bone mineral density tests. Educational

segments with nutritionist Dr. Farzeen Malik,

informing people about the disease, its

preventative measures and general bone

healthcare, will also be aired as part of the

campaign. PR

Easypaisa holds workshopon financial inclusionISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s premier branchless banking

service easypaisa has organized a workshop on

financial inclusion recently in Islamabad. A number

of microfinance institutions and non-government

organizations participated in the workshop and

lauded the role of easypaisa for offering convenient,

secure and reliable mobile money services to the

unbanked communities. In the picture, easypaisa

team is present along with the participants of the

workshop. PR

McDonald’s Pakistanparticipates in NationalBreakfast Day

LAHORE: The dawn of 18th March saw the people in

Asia, Middle East and Africa wake up to a morning

filled with happiness and delight. On this great day,

each of almost five thousand McDonald’s restaurants

in these regions offered up to one thousand free Egg

McMuffins to their customers during breakfast hours

(6:00am to 10:00am).This was a unique global

initiative launched by McDonald’s and it was

celebrated in style as the National Breakfast Day. The

occasion not only provided us with an opportunity to

prove our ability to serve a great number of people in

an efficient manner but, also gave us a chance to

serve our eager customers with a delicious, fun-filled

and affordable breakfast” said Jamil Mughal, Director

Marketing, McDonald’s Pakistan, who was

delightedwith the huge success of this event. PR

Meezan Bank showsconfidence in IBM, InboxBusiness TechnologiesKARACHI: Meezan Bank is Pakistan’s first and

largest Islamic Bank and one of the fastest growing

banks in the banking sector of the Country. With a

vision to establish Islamic banking as banking of first

choice, the Bank commenced operations in 2002, on

being issued the first-ever Islamic commercial

banking license by the State Bank of Pakistan. In

2012, Meezan Bank completed a milestone of 10

years of Islamic Banking in Pakistan. Meezan Bank

requires enterprise class servers for its ever

increasing workloads and expanding branch network.

For this, they have once again selected IBM Power

System Enterprise Class Server Machines through

Inbox Business Technologies. PR

High maternal infantmortality rate demandsimmediate action

LAHORE: Pakistan falls among the countries having

highest maternal and infant mortality rate, which

shows a huge gap in proper awareness and

interventions in this critical area of public health. The

situation is indicative of a dire crisis as various studies

and reports suggest that in Pakistan, a mother dies

every twenty minutes. However, it’s quite ironic that

masses in general of totally oblivious this hard fact.

Pakistan, with its current estimated population of

181.68 million people, is the 6th most populous nation

on earth and a having a very high maternal and infant

mortality rate is still to grasps the immensity of this

crisis. These bleak facts were the focus of the two-day

“Media Sensitization Workshop on Population

Explosion,” held here by CRS, on behalf of APNA

Pakistan – Advocacy for Population & National

Advancement National Advocacy Campaign. PR

Tribute to National HeroKARACHI: The demise of the former PAF hero, Air

Commodore (Retd) M.M. Alam is a matter of national

mourning,” said Syed Jawaid Iqbal, Chairman

Moderates, a private sector Think Tank strengthening

tolerance, interfaith harmony and democracy. Syed

Jawaid Iqbal praised the crucial role played by Air

Comm. M M Alam in turning the tide of the 1965 war

and establishing Pakistan’s air superiority over India.

He said the late air warrior created history during the

Indo-Pak war in 1965, when commanding the No 11

Squadron at Sargodha, he shot down 2 Indian

aircraft and damaged three more. He was awarded

the Sitara-i-Jur’at on this act of outstanding bravery

and heroism. PR

CORPORATE CORNER

02

B

Utility Stores earned profit of Rs 2. 50b,

paid Rs 21b taxes. – Parvez Elahi

PTCL launches end-to-end‘Managed WAN Service’ forcorporate customers

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL),

the largest Information Communication Technology (ICT) service

provider in the country, has today launched a first of its kind end-to-

end solution, ‘Managed WAN Service’, for its corporate customers. The

service was launched at a seminar in Islamabad, in the presence of

large number of corporate customers of the company. Hamid Farooq,

PTCL Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) Business Development;

Samer Ajjawi, Advisory Team Member Etisalat and other senior officials

of the company were also present at the occasion. Hamid Farooq, PTCL

Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) Business Development while

speaking at the seminar said, “Managed WAN Service is another

remarkable product by PTCL, which is designed on the core philosophy

of, ‘let the expert do it for you’. PTCL is striving for end-to-end data and

solution integration for the corporate and SME sector in Pakistan and

our latest offering is geared towards filling this void of this underserved

segment.” The opening presentation was delivered by Nauman Ashraf,

PTCL Senior Manager ICT Products based on the theme ‘One Company.

One Solution’, explaining that the service is specifically designed to

cater for the growing business needs of the corporate customers and

provides the convenience of tailor made design, build &

implementation of networks in a simplified, secure and cost effective

manner. Samer Ajjawi, Advisory Team Member Etisalat also introduced

another state-of-art technology at the seminar, ‘Hosted IP Telephonic

Solution’, which caters for complete hosted collaboration requirement

of corporate customers as a service model. Through this initiative,

companies can now outsource their networks and personalize modules

for individual needs. Major features of this service include online

analytics and reporting, proactive network monitoring and elimination

of capital expenditure of developing a network. PR

KARACHI

APP

THERE are excellentopportunities forjoint ventures be-tween Pakistan andKorea in many fieldsincluding alternate

energy, agriculture, engineering sec-tors, food processing, technical andtechnological collaborations.

This was stated by President FPCCIHaji Fazal Kadir Khan Sheerani duringthe first meeting of Pak-Korea BusinessCouncil of Federation of PakistanChambers of Commerce and Industry(FPCCI). Sohail Nisar, Chairman theCouncil convened the meeting whichwas also attended by Consul General ofRepublic of Korea in Karachi, Chang-Hee Lee, said a FPCCI release hereWednesday. The President FPCCI em-phasized the need for more interaction

between the business communities ofthe two countries including trade dele-gations and exhibitions for promotionof new products, increasing bilateraltrade and investment.

He suggested for conducting a jointstudy to find new products for bilateraltrade and to remove hurdles that im-pede the bilateral trade between Pak-istan and South Korea. The PresidentFPCCI suggested establishing a specialwindow at the Consulate General ofKorea at Karachi to issue visa to thegenuine businessmen on the recom-mendation of FPCCI. Chairman, Pak-Korea Business Council, Sohail Nisarmentioned that Korea has demand forat least 20,000 tons of mango, which iscurrently being met through importsfrom some other countries.

But, he continued, delicious, aro-matic and different varieties of man-goes grown in Pakistan have no paralleland this can be the best choice.

Excellent opportunities existfor Pak-Korea joint ventures

16-17 Business Pages (21-03-2013)_Layout 1 3/21/2013 3:19 AM Page 2