Natural gas accounts for 50 percent of Pakistan’s total energy mix. The present shortage of 2,000mmscfd has led to the closing down of small and large scale industries and businesses across the country. The LNG Policy was issued in 2006 but so far no project relating to LNG has been materialized. This is the final attempt by the government to bring LNG to Pakistan. At present, Asia accounts for …

  CNG was introduced in Pakistan to counter high price of fuel. As a new business venture, many businessmen opened CNG stations to reduce the cost of transportation. CNG kit import became a wide market and especially popular in the transport industry. Introduced in mid 1990’s no one predicted the issues arising out of CNG supply, which we witness today. As the price of fuel based on international oil prices …

  According to World Bank, Pakistan becomes the seventh largest recipient of workers remittances in 2013, with net inflows of about $15 billion. In the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year (FY) under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif government, it has received about $11.6 billion in remittances, up 12 percent from $10.354 billion in the same period of last year. The inflows from all the …

  A welfare state is an idea of government in which the state plays a major role in the promotion and protection of the economic and social well-being of its people. Such a government is a part of the lives of its people as it caters to the material, physical and social demands of its people. The main aim of a welfare state is to primarily generate economic and social …

  If one looks at the composition of annual budget, one point is very clear that revenue collection is barely enough to meet the current expenditure. Often, amounts are borrowed to meet the shortfall and almost the entire developmental expenditures are financed through aid, grants and softer loans acquired from multilateral financial institutions. The budget for next financial year is not likely to be very different from the previous budgets. …

  The agriculture sector plays dual but vital role for the economic development of Pakistan it contributes to the exports of the country by being a primary supplier of raw materials to the downstream industry and on the other hand, it is a large market for industrial products such as pesticides, fertilizers and agricultural machinery. The sector accounts for over 21 percent of the GDP of the country thereby being …

  Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) is the largest corporate entity owned by the government with production capacity of 5 million tons. Privatization of PSM was initiated under the reign of former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, which was met with controversy. The Supreme Court held the privatization effort as defined process and procedures were not followed. Sale of the country’s largest industrial unit went down the drain whereas the matter was …

  Many of the policy planners have the consensus is that the time has come for public-private partnership. It is on record that many of the state owned enterprises (SoEs) have been working very efficiently. It is also known that in some of the businesses, private sector is rather shy to invest because of: 1) huge capital outlay, 2) long gestation period, 3) lower return during the early years and …

  The banking sector through CY13 faced tough challenges with external factors including law and order situation, political uncertainty, strikes causing closure of bank branches in distressed areas to name a few. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) require banks to have minimum capital of Rs10 billion by December 2014, which will be a challenge for banks below the required threshold forcing another round of mergers and acquisitions review. The …

  The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has taken various measures to manage inflation and interest rate. In September 2013, SBP linked minimum rate of return on average balances held in saving deposits with the floor of the interest rate corridor, which means return on saving deposits cannot be more than 50 bps lower than the floor of the interest rate corridor, which is currently at 7.5 percent. This measure …