Thursday, 4 November, 2021 I 28 Rabi-ul-Awwal, 1443 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 126 I 12 Pages I Lahore Edition
PM announces Rs120bn subsidy Package to Mitigate inflation iMPact P
rime minister imran Khan on Wednesday addressed the nation and announced “the country’s biggest ever” subsidy package worth rs120 billion, providing 30 percent discount on ghee, flour and pulses to support 130 million people for ebbing away the impact of inflation from them. the prime minister, in his televised address to the nation, said that 20 million families would benefit from the subsidy package to be funded jointly by the federal and provincial governments. under the package, the beneficiaries would avail a 30 percent discount on ghee, flour and pulses for next six months. he said that the package is apart from the ongoing different programmes under the ehsaas initiative worth rs260 billion, affecting 120 million families. he said that under the package, interest-free loans of up to rs500,000 will be provided to citizens to start businesses and a similar amount of loan will
also be provided to farmers. he said that the government has asked the construction sector to increase the salaries of workers. “under the package, four million families will be able to build houses without interest,” he said, adding that rs1,400 billion have been allocated for the Kamyab Pakistan Programme (KPP) with the aim to provide opportunities to the deserving and uplift 3.7 million households across the country. he also said that a health-insurance programme will be introduced in Punjab from December. special assistant to Prime minister on Poverty alleviation Dr sania nishtar said, “ehsaas and the national Bank of Pakistan have developed a technology-based targeted subsidy disbursal programme. the system will digitise parts of the retail sector and there will be use of real time data for decision making. the use of a digital platform in this programme will help us track utilisation of subsidy by each beneficiary at product and geogra-
Dollar falls below Rs170 against rupee in intra-day trading g
LocaL currency cLoses at over one-month high
the rupee appreciation continued on Wednesday with the us dollar declining by a fresh rs0.57 to rs169.97 in the inter-
bank market during intra-day trading. With a fresh increase of 0.34 per cent, the currency has
gained around rs5.30 against the greenback during the last six sessions. While it has appreciated by 3.12pc since its all-time low of rs175.27 recorded on october 26. according to market experts, deposits worth $3 billion from saudi Fund for Development has reversed the downtrend by improving the forex reserves whereas the market also has clarity regarding imF now and the trade deficit has also declined. it may be recalled that the real effective exchange rate (reer) – the country’s cost of trade with the world – fell to 93-94 when rupee crossed rs175 mark against the greenback. news desk
Implementation of ‘toughest’ FATF plan nearing completion: minister ISLAMABAD app
minister for energy hammad azhar Wednesday said that Pakistan was close to completing the action plans given by the Financial action task Force (FatF) to ensure compliance in line with its standards. “two of the toughest action plans were given to Pakistan and we showed excellent performance in a short span of time; now we are near to completing both tasks,” he said while addressing the participants of first assessors’ course here at the national FatF secretariat. azhar, who is also chairman of Pakistan’s anti-money Laundering (amL)/combating the Financing of terrorism (cFt) group, said that Pakistan was playing a key role in the global fight against terrorism, its financing, and also money-laundering. he said Pakistan had learned a lot from the challenge of being on the grey list and had converted it into an opportunity to improve the existing system. “the assessors’ course is part of our learning as we want Pakistan to have the local capacity to assess public and private institutions dealing with financial flows.” through this course, the minister vowed that Pakistan would continue with improvement processes for regional and world safety even after completing the FatF’s action plans. he expressed confidence that Pakistan’s assessors, after getting training, would not only be able to represent the country at an international level but also provide services to other countries. “the course is a good development which
shows Pakistan’s increasing compliance and commitment towards the FatF. Pakistan’s system is much more compliant to FatF as compared to most countries present on the platform. our enforcement measures are far effective than them,” he said. With these measures, azhar said, Pakistan’s future generations would benefit due to the lasting peace in the region and world. “it will help check menaces like money-laundering through which billions of dollars of poor countries are illegally shifted to other countries every year,” he added. FatF secretariat Director general (Dg) national, Khawaja adnan Zahir, in his welcome address to the concluding session of the first 9-day assessors course, highlighted the importance of the training for law enforcement agencies and other departments, keeping in view the massive challenges the country has faced over the last three years. During the past decade, he said, the global amL/cFt landscape had changed tremendously and regulatory checks have increased. “the economic and political image of many countries has been tainted because of issues like money laundering and terrorism financing,” he said, adding Pakistan had throughout been one of the most affected countries from these issues due to numerous reasons. moreover, FatF secretariat Director national rizwana Qazi presented a detailed briefing on working and objectives of the secretariat and structure of the training course that was attended by officers from different departments.
phy levels, which will provide much needed transparency in the process. this process will help make beneficiaries and store owners more digitally adept. the participating store owners will be required to open bank accounts, which will help increase financial inclusion, and settlement payments made through raast will help increase scale of digital transactions in Pakistan.” talking about assistance from foreign countries, the premier thanked china and saudi arabia for financially assisting Pakistan. he also talked about coronavirus situation across the world and said that, unlike other countries, the Pakistani government made strategic decisions related to the imposition of lockdowns and saved factories from closing down, besides ensuring continuation of agricultural activities. “[Due to the government’s policies], cotton production increased by 81 percent, rice 13.6 percent, corn 8 percent, sugarcane 22 percent, and wheat
8 percent., while record-breaking motorcycle and tractor sales were witnessed in the country. Farmers are using more urea, indicating that the conditions are getting better. When farmers are happy, the production increases and benefits the country,” he said. “our policies prevented the economy from collapsing. the World Bank, the World health organisation, and the World economic Forum all praised our policies amid the pandemic. yes, we are facing inflation in the country but you [media outlets] should also look at what the government is doing to alleviate the situation. Due to factors, which are not in the hands of the government, petrol prices will have to be increased further. if we do not increase the price of petrol, the deficit will increase. the global oil prices have risen to 100 percent, while the price of petrol in india is rs250 per litre. oil and ghee prices have doubled worldwide, and since we import these items, what can we do about the prices?” news desk