Friday, 1 January, 2021 I 16 Jumada Al-Awwal, 1442 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XI No 183 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
PM extends fixed tax regiMe for construction sector till end 2021
ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
P
RIME Minister Imran Khan on Thursday announced that the fixed tax regime for the construction sector that was introduced earlier this year had been extended to Dec 31, 2021. “I want to give [the construction sector] good news for the new year. We have extended the fixed tax regime to Dec 31, 2021,” the PM said during a live address to the nation, adding that the “extra year” had been given in view of the construction industry’s demand. According to a report compiled by Dawn, the premier also announced that “projects worth Rs186 billion have been registered with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) under incentives given for construction in April”. “The projects that are in the process of registration amount to Rs116bn. We believe that the economic activity that this will generate will be equivalent to Rs1,500bn in Pun-
jab alone, and will result in 250,000 jobs. Similar projects have also been started in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Karachi and Balochistan,” he added. Talking about the incentives his government had given so far, the premier said: “We gave packages for low-cost housing for salaried people who were unable to afford houses [previously]. Its first success was the foreclosure law. For the first time in Pakistan, banks are financing houses. Banks have vowed to allocate Rs378bn for construction activity till Dec 31, 2021. “The subsidy we have given for low-cost housing [will remain in place]. The interest rate will not be more than five per cent on houses of five marlas and the interest rate for houses of 10 marlas will not be more than 7pc. For the first 100,000 houses that will be built [under this scheme], we have decided to give Rs300,000 per house. “Our government decided to give subsidies of Rs30bn for low-cost housing,” he added in reference to the package announced in July for the Naya Pakistan Hous-
coronavirus in
Pakistan
CONFIRMED CASES:
479,715
LAST UPDATED AT 8:01 AM ON DECEMBER 31, 2020
DAY'S DEATH TOLL:
55
RECOVERED:
NEW CASES:
2,155 DEATHS:
435,073 10,105 SINDH:
PUNJAB:
214,425
137,949
KP:
BALOCHISTAN:
AJK/GB:
ISLAMABAD:
58,379
18,148
8,256/4,856 37,702
ing Project (NPHP) so that people could build their dream house at an affordable cost. The prime minister also extended other exemptions, including the exemption from Section 111 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 for builders which empowered tax authorities to inquire about the sources of a person’s assets or cash. “We have extended that to June 30, 2021.” “[The deadline for ] projects that were due to be completed by Sept 30, 2023, has been extended for another year. We have also extended the exemption for [the law that requires] buyers to disclose sources of income to March 31, 2023.” The prime minister expressed satisfaction over the process of housing finance in the country, saying “it took us a lot of time to get a positive verdict on the foreclosure law from the courts but for the first time in Pakistan, the segment [of society] that could not afford to buy houses have gotten the opportunity [to have their own homes].” I am very happy that banks are “far ahead in house financing”, he said. He further said the construction industry faced trouble in taking advantage of the government’s incentives earlier because the “coronavirus was its peak and implementation took time”. This created the demand to extend those incentives, he explained. “By opening the construction [industry] early, we avoided the negative impact [of coronavirus] on our economy. Pakistan suffered [losses] in the service industry but by opening construction, we fared a lot better than other countries.” He said this was the “first government to raise industries” after the 1960s and it would lead to “wealth creation, loan repayment and giving livelihood to Pakistan’s young population”. He also vowed to “fully back” the sector in the future and remove obstacles and red tape.
Govt approves Rs2.31 petrol price hike against OGRA's proposal of Rs10.68 ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday approved an increase of Rs2.31 and Rs1.80 in the prices of petrol and diesel, respectively, contrary to Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority's (OGRA) recommendation of Rs10.68 and Rs8.37. "While considering relief for the people, Prime Minister Imran Khan approved the minimum possible increase in prices of petroleum products against Ogra's recommendations," a Prime Minister's Office (PMO) press release said. OGRA had proposed an increase of Rs10.68 in petrol price and Rs8.37 in diesel price but the prime minister rejected the proposal in the public interest. Similarly, OGRA had proposed an increase of kerosene oil price by Rs10.92 and light diesel oil (LDO) by Rs14.87 which the prime minister reduced to Rs3.36 and Rs3.95 respectively. Petrol is mostly used in private transport, small vehicles,
Pakistan to purchase 1.2m Covid-19 vaccine doses from China’s Sinopharm ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
Pakistan will purchase 1.2 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from China’s Sinopharm, a minister said on Thursday, the first official confirmation of a vaccine purchase by the South Asian country as it battles the second wave of infections. China approved a Covid19 vaccine developed by an affiliate of state-backed pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm on Thursday, its first approved shot for general public use. “The Cabinet Committee has decided to initially purchase 1.2 million doses of the vaccine from the Chinese company Sinopharm, which will be provided free of cost to frontline workers in the first quarter of 2021,” Pakistani Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said on Twitter. The minister told Reuters the purchase would be of the vaccine candidate developed by Sinopharm’s Beijing Institute of Biological Products. Sinopharm has another candidate, developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which is also in phase III trials.
Pakistan earlier this month approved $150 million to buy Covid-19 vaccines, initially to cover the most vulnerable 5 per cent of the population, but did not announce which one it would procure, saying it could tap more than one source. “If the private sector wants to import any other internationally-approved vaccine, it can,” Hussain said on Thursday. The country of 220 million is in the midst of another spate of infections, with 58 deaths on Wednesday taking its death toll past 10,000. It also reported 2,475 new infections, taking the total to 479,715. Pakistan is currently running phase III clinical trials for
CanSino Biologics’ vaccine candidate, Ad5-nCoV, led by the government-run National Institute of Health. Hassan Abbas of AJ Pharma, CanSino’s local representative, told Reuters on Wednesday that recruitment for the trial will be completed in 10 days. “Preliminary results will be shared 4 or 5 days after recruitment is completed, and these will include the efficacy of the vaccine,” Abbas said, adding that thus far there have been no serious side effects. AJ Pharma is one of five companies that have applied for a license to distribute the vaccine in Pakistan once approved, he added.
NCOC announces vaccination centres at public healthcare centres ISLAMABAD: After the federal cabinet authorised the procurement of coronavirus vaccines from a Chinese company, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) was informed on Thursday that vaccine administration cells would be established in all district and tehsil headquarter (THQ) hospitals, as well as regional health centres, to ensure that immunisation was conducted at the grassroots level. A cabinet committee on Thursday authorised the procurement of over one million coronavirus drops to cover frontline healthcare workers. STAFF REPORT CONTINUED ON PAGE 05
rickshaws and two-wheelers, while the high-speed diesel (HSD) is mostly used in heavy transport vehicles, trains and agricultural engines like trucks, buses, tractors, tube-wells and threshers, and so on, while LDO is consumed by flour mills and a couple of power plants. Earlier, the Ministry of Finance on December 15 had announced prices of petroleum products for the remaining days of the month. At present, petrol is available at Rs103.69/litre, HSD at Rs108.44/litre, kerosene oil Rs70.29/litre and LDO at Rs67.86/litre in the open market. After the changes take effect, petrol will be available at the new rate of Rs106 per litre while diesel will be sold for Rs110.24 per litre. The new prices will take effect from January 1, 2021. Meanwhile, the new price of kerosene oil is Rs73.65 per litre and light diesel oil will be available for Rs71.81. The new prices are applicable from midnight tonight till January 15.
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