01

BUSINESS

BThursday, 23 May, 2013

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

THE SNGPL based fer-tilizer plants would in-vest $ 100 million forlong-term developmentof dedicated lower btugas fields that would

ensure better gas supply to plants for bet-ter local production instead of dependingon costly imported urea worth hundredsof millions of dollars.

The fertilizer sector has been deprivedof gas since April 2010 and has been oneof the worst affected sectors, in turn af-fecting the rural economy over the lastfew years.

According to Shahab Khawaja, exec-utive director, Fertilizer ManufacturersPakistan Advisory Council (FMPAC),new gas allocation through long-termarrangement is just a replacement of cur-rent allocation through which fertilizerplants based on SNGPL network will getgas through different small fields as a re-placement of gas which would be discon-tinued from existing sources and which istheir legal right as all fertilizer companieshave agreements in place(gas sales pur-chase agreement- GSPA) with the utility

providers. He said the de-

cision was meantto supply gas tofertilizer in-d u s t r yt h r o u g hd e d i -cated

s m a l lfields in line with thestrategy to reduce burdenfrom the SNGPL network, and toensure continuous supply to gen-eral and industrial consumers in thecountry. This decision has beentaken after detailedd e l i b e r a t i o n sfrom all concernedstakeholders in thelarger interest of the countrywhich is an agriculture economy,he added.

Agriculture contributes around24% to the GDP of Pakistan and italso provides raw materials to all themajor industries of Pakistan including,textiles and sugar. He said successful im-plementation of the long-term plan willensure self sufficiency of the country infer t i l -

izer production andwould also bring substan-

tial savings, half a billion dol-lars of foreign exchange

annually and subsidyof approximately

Rs 20 billionthat the coun-

try has tospend on 1

million tonneof urea imports.

He said post theECC approval, GSAs

between gas fields and fer-tilizer plants were inked carry-

ing reservoir risks and gastransportation agreements withboth Sui companies and weresigned under OGRA’s TPARules, adding that these agree-

ments strictly comply with theTPA rules.

The arrangement is beneficialfor Sui companies with additionalstream of tolling income and saving240 mmscfd of gas allocated to fourfertilizer plants under existingGSAs with SNGPL. While dis-pelling the impression that fertil-

izer sector would

get dedicated gas from different smallfields without any additional investment,he said to facilitate this transaction, fertil-izer plants are investing more than $100million in increasing pipeline capacitiesof Sui companies where bottlenecks exist.

The SNGPL based plants being large-scale units are now at the verge of closurewith over 100 billions rupees of payablebank loans. The current arrangement is awin-win for all stakeholders as fertilizerplants upon receiving regular gas fromdifferent small fields would provide farm-ers with cheaper local urea and gas com-panies would be selling this gas to newcustomers at better rates.

He said fertilizer plants will also paya higher gas price than the gas price avail-able to them under the existing GSAs, andwill also have to incur significant addi-tional investment for the smooth trans-portation of gas from respective gas fieldsto their plants. In the past despite guaran-teed contracts with the fertilizer industry,gas was diverted from fertilizer compa-nies to other sectors, however, with theimplementation of this arrangement, cer-tainty of gas supplies to the fertilizer sec-tor would be ensured to get continuous

urea production for Pakistani agri-culture sector.

Fertilizer sector to invest $100mto develop BTU gas sources

ISLAMABAD

APP

People from across the society haveexpressed mixed views on the care-taker government’s decision to banCNG in private vehicles having a ca-pacity above 1,000cc.

The caretaker government madethe decision in view of acute short-age and scarcity of gas and to ensureits gainful use by supplying it toother important sectors.

The Ministry of Petroleum andNatural Resources has been directedto consult the Ministry of Law forthe implementation of these deci-sions.

These decisions, after being vet-ted by the Ministry of Law, willcome into force on May 25.

“Though the decision has beentaken in good intention, but it shouldban CNG in public transport whichhad been the largest consumers, hav-ing several cylinders installed in ve-hicles,” Zahid Aslam, a public-sectoremployee said.

He was of the view that sincepublic transport could easily affordpetrol or diesel since they were doingbusiness and charging passengerswhatever they wanted to.

A taxi driver, Mir Janan, said thedecision would go a long way in ex-tending relief to common people.

He said the decision would pushrich people, who had luxurious vehi-cles at their disposal, to move topetrol or diesel consumption.

“You will see rich people withtheir luxurious cars in queues to refillCNG at filling stations in the twincities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi,which is, to me, not a good practice,”he observed.

The All Pakistan CNG Associa-tion (APCNGA) has rejected the de-cision, arguing it does not fall underthe mandate of the caretaker govern-ment.

It said the unpopular decision canin no way extend relief to the poorand would further increase problemsfor the masses and the business com-munity.

The association also rejected theMinistry of Petroleum and NaturalResources plan to suspend gas sup-ply to CNG outlets for six days onaccount of maintenance of plants atQadirpur gas field.

“The decision to bar CNG outletsfrom busi-

ness from May 21 toMay 27 will impact masses and

businesses and therefore the decisioncannot be accepted,” said APCNGAchief Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha.

He was of the view that closingsupply from the gas field will resultin a shortfall of 400 mmcfd whichshould have been distributed onmerit among gas consuming sectors.He said license issued to CNG oper-ators clearly indicate that any deci-sion regarding gas supply will betaken with consensus.

It has been approved by theprime minister that any CNG fillingstation found violating these instruc-tions shall be fined for the first of-fence with Rs 50,000. In case ofrepetition, the owner shall be finedRs 100,000 and in case of a third of-fence and violation, the CNG stationshall be sealed for a minimum periodof six months.

Similarly for any subsequent of-fence, the period of suspension of theCNG station shall not be less thanone year. These instructions shall notbe applicable on public transport asdefined in West Pakistan Public

Transport Act 1961.

Mixed views expressedto ban CNG in privatevehicles above 1,000cc

Plan to collectRs 150 billiontax money

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

The caretaker federal government is ac-tively considering levying taxes to thetune of Rs 150 billion through a presiden-tial ordinance.According to sources, the government hasdecided to levy 5 percent withholding taxon the purchase of new vehicles, 17 per-cent general sales tax (GST) on sugar, andGST to 1.5 percent on all exports.Besides these, the Federal Excise Duty oncigarettes would be 65 percent of the re-tail price.PTEA OPPOSES TAXE INCREASEMeanwhile, the Pakistan Textile ExportersAssociation (PTEA) expressed concernover the imposition of a further 1% salestax and recent increase in withholding taxthrough presidential ordinance on textilesector, abolishing the sales tax zero ratingregime.In a statement, PTEA Chairman AsgharAli and Vice Chairman Muhammad Asiftermed it as the last nail in the coffin ofthe textile sector. “Such unrealistic decisions would ad-versely affect textile exports of the coun-try at a time when the industrial sector isalready in hot waters due to the energycrisis,” they added.“The changes in the tax regime would addfire to fuel,” he said, adding that the in-sane decision would adversely affect ex-ports at a time when a huge amount ofsales tax refunds are already stuck withthe FBR and exporters are facing a liquid-ity crunch. The government may study export poli-cies of India, China and Bangladeshwhere exporters are facilitated through ex-port-friendly policies, he said and addedthat FBR should announce export friendlypolicies instead of creating difficulties forthe industry. They further said there would be no levelplaying field for honest taxpayers instead,it would only result in blockade of theircapital in the shape of refunds, increasecost of doing business, shrink exportturnover, and compel them to greasepalms of tax officers to secure timely re-funds. “In the prevailing economic conditions,rising cost of production is the core issuefor textile exporters and this move remov-ing the sales tax zero rating regime on ex-ports would have a negative impact onnational economy and exports of thecountry,” they added.Asghar Ali said exporters strongly feelthat the caretaker government and theFBR purposely want to ruin the vitalvalue-added textile export sector, which isalready reeling under load shedding ofelectricity and gas, hike in electricityprices, deteriorating law and order situa-tion, and strikes.PTEA office bearers urged the govern-ment to drop recent presidential sales taxordinance for levying further 1% sales taxand the recent increase inwithholding tax,immediately.They furtherdemanded

to

con-tinue the pre-

vious zerorating scheme in

the in-terestofthein-dus-

try.

SECP issues license to non-life insurancecompany

KARACHI

APP

The Securities and Exchange Commissionof Pakistan (SECP) issued a license to theSahara Insurance Company Limited(SICL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of theEmployees Old-age Benefits Institution(EOBI), to transact non-life insurance busi-ness in Pakistan.A statement on Wednesday said with con-tinuing emphasis on social insurance, theEOBI decided to incorporate the SICL withthe primary objective of providing healthinsurance coverage to EOBI pensioners,aged between 60 and 70. In addition, accidental death and disabilitycoverage will be provided to expatriatePakistanis working abroad.In case of health insurance, the premiumwill be funded by theWorkers Welfare Fund while premiums foraccidental death and disability insurancewill be paid directly by the expatriate Pak-istani labour force to Sahara InsuranceCompany Limited (SICL).Following the registration of the SICL, thetotal number of active non-life insurers hasreached 40, while the total number of ac-tive insurance companies (life and non-life), including Pakistan ReinsuranceCompany Limited, now stands at 50. The last time a license was issued by theSECP to an insurance company was in2009, and that was to a life insurer.With this move, it is anticipated that thehealth insurance sector in Pakistan will wit-ness visible growth while holistically im-proving insurance penetration and densityfigures that have remained one of the low-est in the region, it was further stated.

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BUSINESSThursday, 23 May, 2013

Xpress Money offers freeLife Insurance cover toOverseas PakistanisKARACHI: Xpress Money, the world’s most

dependable money transfer brand, in association

with Union Insurance - one of the leading insurance

firms in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC)

region, today launched remittance industry’s first

free life insurance for Overseas Pakistanis working

in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Kuwait.

Designed specifically to suit the blue collared

population, this monthly renewable free life

insurance scheme, is available to any person

remitting money through Xpress Money. This

pioneering insurance will provide a life insurance

protection of 15, 000 Saudi Riyals / 1150 Kuwaiti

Dinars including 5000 Saudi Riyals / 390 Kuwaiti

Dinars (approximately) of repatriation expenses of

the mortal remains, something that not many

insurance companies cover. The life insurance

benefit will be available to any person remitting

money through Xpress Money for a period of one

month, from the day the customer makes a

transaction. A remitter can avail this life insurance

free of cost irrespective of the amount transacted.

Rizwan Hamdani, Country Manager - Pakistan,

Xpress Money, said: “Majority of the Pakistani

expats from blue-collared category, residing and

working in the KSA and Kuwait, generally work in

hazardous conditions at construction sites, factories

etc. We launched this free life insurance scheme

because we are sensitive to humanity and believe

that every life is priceless. This life insurance is a

critical value addition to our services and we are

glad to be associated with Union Insurance - a

leading insurance brand in the Gulf Co-operation

Council (GCC) region in creating a new milestone in

the remittance sphere.” PR

International Forum ofYoung Poetesses BAKU: “International Forum of Young Poetesses”

organized by the “Great Silk Way” International

Youth Union with the support of the Ministry of

Youth and Sport of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of

Azerbaijan and Youth Foundation under the

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan was held in

Baku, Azerbaijan on 26-28 April 2013. The forum

took place in the International Mugham Centre with

participation of more than 20 poetesses from all

around the world, in particular, Albania, Azerbaijan,

Bangladesh, Egypt, Georgia, Greece, Hungary,

Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Morocco,

Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Tunisia, Turkey,

Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Officials

from Ministry of Youth and Sport, Ministry of

Culture and Tourism and Youth Foundation under

the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Chairman and members of the Writers Union,

members of the Parliament of the Republic of

Azerbaijan, delegates of diplomatic corps of

participating countries participated in the event. For

the first time, the International Forum of Young

Poetesses was held in Azerbaijan. The main

purpose of the forum was organizing the meeting of

young literary talents living in various countries and

found the tradition of international cooperation in

Baku. The youth from Europe to Africa had

exchanged their experiences and also had

researched opportunities of forming a great literary

unity. During the Forum young poetesses presented

their poems as well as participated in sessions such

as: “Alternative literature – modern ways of self

expression” moderated by famous writer, publicist

and member of the Writers Union Gunel Anargizi,

“Role of young poetesses in intercultural dialogue”

moderated by famous poetesses Nigar Hasanzadeh

and “Feminism in literature” moderated by famous

poetess and TV host Solmaz Suleymanli. PR

Samsung GALAXY S4becomes world’s firstTCO certified smartphoneLAHORE: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced

that the Samsung GALAXY S4 is TCO Certified, the

first smartphone to be awarded such an honor. TCO

Development, an independent body that focuses on

sustainability in the IT industry, found the GALAXY

S4 was sustainably designed and manufactured and

met customer demand for sustainable mobile

products. “The demand for environmentally friendly

products informed our decision making process

when we were creating the GALAXY S4. We are

delighted to be the first smartphone manufacturer

to be TCO Certified as this validates our approach

to sustainability,” said JK Shin, CEO & President, IT

& Mobile Communications Division, Samsung

Electronics. “This is the second significant

certificate the GALAXY S4 has received since its

release as we were also awarded Platinum

ECOLOGO certification from UL. Our customers can

trust that every device we release to the market is

sustainable and environmentally friendly.” To

become TCO Certified a smartphone must meet

requirements across a variety of criteria including

social, environmental and economic viability. In the

social category, Samsung demonstrated that it is

committed to socially responsible manufacturing

and is compliant with International Labour

Organization and United Nation conventions. In the

environmental category, it was found that the

GALAXY S4 was free from many hazardous

materials such as nickel, beryllium, and mercury

which, if present, would have severely restricted its

potential to be recycled at the end its lifecycle. In

terms of economic viability, the power efficiency of

the charger was praised, as was the smartphone’s

industrial design which boosts reliability. PR

Etihad Airways boosts services at Abu Dhabi airportKARACHI: Etihad Airways, the national airline of

the United Arab Emirates, has finalised the

agreement to acquire three airport services

companies which will accelerate and consolidate

the development of in-flight catering services,

ground handling and cargo operations at Abu

Dhabi International Airport. Formerly part of Abu

Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), the three

companies, Abu Dhabi Airport Services (ADAS),

Abu Dhabi In-Flight Catering (ADIFC), and Abu

Dhabi Cargo Company (ADCC), are being

incorporated, subject to receipt of regulatory

approvals, into Etihad Airport Services, a wholly

owned subsidiary of Etihad Airways. The

companies, which employ more than 4,000 people,

are being integrated into the airline’s existing

organisational structure to maximise synergies

and operational scale. The re-engineered business

units will continue to provide the full range of

ground handling, catering and cargo services to

Etihad Airways and other airlines at Abu Dhabi

International Airport, dedicated to customer

excellence and commercial viability. James Hogan,

Etihad Airways’ President and Chief Executive

Officer, said: “This acquisition follows international

best practice and is critical to the continued

growth of the airline, and more importantly to the

sustained growth and development of Abu Dhabi’s

aviation industry in general as envisioned in the

Abu Dhabi Plan 2030. PR

CORPORATE CORNER

02

B

Major Gainers

COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVERNestle Pak. 6600.00 6700.00 6690.00 6700.00 100.00 100Bata (Pak) 1810.00 1900.00 1760.01 1900.00 90.00 550National Foods 359.50 377.47 356.00 377.47 17.97 9,500Pak Services 278.64 292.57 278.64 292.57 13.93 3,200P.S.O. 269.31 282.77 275.11 282.77 13.46 5,281,200

Major LosersUnilever Food 4900.00 4950.00 4655.00 4800.00 -100.00 220Wyeth Pak Ltd 1474.20 1475.00 1400.49 1440.87 -33.33 1,950Dreamworld 327.27 315.00 311.00 311.00 -16.27 200Exide (PAK) 445.00 440.00 423.00 433.00 -12.00 2,100Indus Motor Co XD 332.00 323.00 321.00 321.00 -11.00 200

Volume Leaders

Lotte Chemical 7.78 8.78 7.77 8.63 0.85 63,153,000Fauji Cement 11.76 12.34 11.88 12.06 0.30 52,457,500Dewan Cement 6.28 7.28 6.35 7.12 0.84 33,841,500K.E.S.C. 6.35 7.00 6.35 6.92 0.57 32,928,500P.T.C.L.A 20.67 21.50 20.77 21.05 0.38 29,933,000

Interbank RatesUSD PKR 98.5120GBP PKR 148.7531JPY PKR 0.9577EURO PKR 127.5435

ForexBUY SELL

US Dollar 99.70 99.95 Euro 126.85 127.10 Great Britain Pound 148.51 148.74 Japanese Yen 0.9484 0.9583 Canadian Dollar 94.82 96.50 Hong Kong Dollar 12.58 12.82 UAE Dirham 26.95 27.20 Saudi Riyal 26.45 26.69

ISLAMABAD: The prime minister of Pak-istan in order to overcome energy shortageshas ordered to stop the use of air conditionersin all public office buildings in the country.Moreover to combat heat during summerswhich sometimes witnesses temperaturesabove 500 C in many parts of Pakistan, thepremier directed all the civil servants to fol-low a new dress code to facilitate them attheir work places.

During last winter season when the tem-perature dropped to below freezing in Islam-

abad, the federal secretary for water & powerhad ordered to close natural gas & electricityheaters in all office buildings to save energyin the country. Moreover she advised publicservants to wear heavy clothes so that theyfeel comfortable during work and may notcatch cold. To solve the worst energy crisesin Pakistan, Energy Foundation chief has ad-vised the government to use green energy re-sources like solar, geothermal, wind, water,bio & city waste, which are abundantly avail-able all over the country with capacity to pro-

duce more than 200,000 MW of electricity.The use of green energy which is free, clean,environment friendly, renewable and sustain-able source could provide low cost reliableelectricity to our people in a short period oftime. Moreover it will reduce our depend-ence on imported fossil fuels, like crude oil,furnace oil, diesel oil, petrol & coal requiredfor thermal power plants and shall save bil-lions of dollars every year in the form of im-ports. Geothermal energy is being used forair-conditioning of buildings in seventy

countries of the world. The US Governmentin order to save energy & protect the envi-ronment has provided geothermal energy inmost public buildings which was initiated byPresident Clinton in 1999. Moreover the USGovernment has decided to install one mil-lion geothermal energy air-conditioned sys-tems every year by 2016, in all buildings inthe country. The geothermal energy air-con-ditioned systems do not use any gas, oil orcoal and save up to 60% electricity. More-over, no water is used in the system while

millions of gallons of water are wastedeveryday in the conventional air-conditionedsystems. The people in Islamabad are facingacute shortage of water during summer sea-son and in many sectors they have no watereven for drinking. If the air-conditionedplants in Islamabad are operated on geother-mal energy we can save the water whichcould be used for drinking. The geothermalenergy air-conditioned system will save util-ity bills, 100% for gas, up to 60% for elec-tricity and 100 % for water. PRESS RELEASE

Green energy to solve energy crisis in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD

APP

PAKISTAN’S ex-ports in rupees termsurged by 13.38 per-cent to Rs 1.941 tril-

lion during the first ten monthsof the current fiscal year asagainst the corresponding pe-riod of last year. Exports fromthe country during July-April(2012-13) were recorded at Rs1,941,654 million against theexports of Rs 1,712,557 millionduring July-April (2011-12),according to the latest data ofPakistan Bureau of Statistics.

On a month-on-month(MoM) basis, the exports fromthe country increased by 0.08percent to Rs 209,441 in April2013 when compared to the Rs209,274 million exports ofMarch 2013. On the other hand,on a year-on-year (YoY) basis,exports during April 2013 in-creased by 3.68 percent whencompared to exports of Rs202,010 million during thesame month last year. The maincommodities of exports duringApril 2013 were cotton cloth(Rs 24,034 million), cotton yarn(Rs 18,447 million), readymadegarments (Rs 16,068 million),knitwear (Rs 14,849 million),rice other than basmati (Rs14,591 million), bed wear (Rs

14,552 million), sugar (Rs9,141 million), towels (Rs6,804 million), rice basmati (Rs5,454 million) and leathertanned (Rs 5,372 million).

Meanwhile, imports intothe country during July-April(2012-13) stood at Rs3,533,990 million against im-ports of Rs 3,279,526 millionduring the corresponding periodof last year, showing an in-crease of 7.76 percent. Duringthe month of April 2013, im-ports into the country wererecorded at Rs 384,277 againstthe imports of Rs 361,585 mil-lion in March, showing a posi-tive growth of 6.28 percent.

Compared to imports of Rs340,480 million during April2012, the imports in April 2013witnessed an increase of 12.86percent, the PBS data revealed.The main commodities of im-ports during April 2013 were pe-troleum products (Rs 72,320million) petroleum crude(53,529 million), iron and steel(Rs 16,231 million), palm oil(Rs 15,415 million), plastic ma-terials (Rs 12,049 million), me-dicinal products (Rs 8,210million), electrical machineryand apparatus (Rs 8,209 mil-lion), raw cotton (Rs 7,938 mil-lion), gold (Rs 7,608 million)and motor cars (CKD/SKD) (Rs5,011 million), the data revealed.

WAPDA working onover 20 watersector projectsISLAMABAD: The Water and PowerDevelopment Authority (WAPDA) isworking on more than 20 projects inwater sector with cumulative waterstorage capacity of about 13 millionacre feet (MAF) and power generationof more than 21,000 MW. An official source said completion ofthese projects would not only increasewater storage capacity to help im-prove per-capita water availability inthe country but also enhance the ratioof low-cost hydel electricity in the na-tional grid. Dilating upon the detailsof WAPDA projects, the sources saidthat WAPDA had completed six watersector projects from last year onwardsadding 4.13 MAF of water and 323MW of hydel electricity. These in-cluded Mangla Dam Raising, KhanKhwar, Jinnah, Allai Khwar, GomalZam and Satpara Dam. Amongst restof the projects, Neelum Jhelum,Golen Gol, Keyal Khwar, Tarbela 4thExtension, Diamer Basha, Dasu,Mohmand Dam and Bunji Hy-dropower Project are to name a few,they added. For optimum utilisationof the water resources, they saidWAPDA was also constructing smalland medium-sized dams in all thefour provinces and FATA in additionto its mega projects. They saidDarawat Dam has recently been com-pleted, while construction work hasalso been initiated on Nai Gaj, Nau-long and Ghabir Dam projects. APP

Political stabilityis a pre-requisitefor economicstability: ICCIISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamberof Commerce and Industry (ICCI)President Zafar Bakhtawari said polit-ical stability is a pre-requisite for eco-nomic growth and development of thecountry. “There should have been planfor practicing good governance forsustaining and maintaining a soundpolitical and socio-economic systemin the country,” said Zafar Bakhtawariduring a meeting with Tariq FazalChaudhary of PML-N on Wednesday.Zafar Bakhtawari informed the newlyelected MNA about various problemsfaced by business community andhighlighted the problem of balancedrent control because non-existence ofa balanced rent law in the federal capi-tal was the main cause of rising rentdisputes between tenants and land-lords. He urged the leaders of all thepolitical parties to help strengthendemocratic system in the national in-terest, adding that political stabilitywas a key factor for economic devel-opment and restoring confidence offoreign and local investors. Speakingon the occasion, Tariq Fazal Chaud-hary said his party would launch de-velopment projects throughout thecountry as the PML-N leadership hadalready delivered various developmentprojects to the masses in the past andit would continue its struggle to makethe country prosperous. ONLINE

Exports surge 13.38 percentto 1.941 trillion in 10 months

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