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Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf leader Jahangir Khan Tareen has said that he has not withdrawn his offer to provide 20,000 tones sugar to Utility Stores Corporation at discounted price. “He is committed to provide 20,000 tones sugar to Utility Stores Corporation at discounted price but through process of open tender. He said that my offer was misinterpreted that is why I attach condition of purchasing through open tender”. He added. He said that Rs.67 per Kg sugar will be provided to the Utility Stores Corporation which is for less than market rate. He said that Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Government is committed to provide relief to the masses and making efforts to reduce their economic difficulties. He said the opposition tries to distort the image through disinformation and baseless allegation devoid of facts. He said that it is regretful that some political elements are trying to mislead the public about my initiatives taken in good faith and welfare of the public.

Pakistan’s two leading brands have joined hands

to provide free unlimited mobile data to millions

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Jazz, Pakistan’s leading digital communications company with 60 million users, and Pakistan’s leading juice brand – Nestlé Fruita Vitals have partnered to offer consumers an opportunity to win free data for up to 300 GBs a year. This partnership lets customers stay connected on the go.

Jazz, a data leader with its ‘customer first’ approach aims to provide its widely spread consumer base with unlimited data through the partnership with Nestlé Fruita Vitals. The Jazz Super 4G data can be won by scratching the code given on the side of each Jazz branded Fruita Vitals pack, available at stores across Pakistan.

Commenting on this partnership, Head of Marketing, Rizwan Fazal stated, “Every third Pakistani is a Jazz customer and we take special pride in this. In this rare initiative, Jazz extends its offer to provide unlimited data to Nestlé’s customers in the times of increasing demand to stay connected to popular trends.”

Business Executive Officer, Juices, Coffee and CPW Fuad Ghazanfar said, “This unique promotion will add value to the lives of countless Gen-Z Nestlé Fruita Vitals consumers who breathe digital and use it to express themselves on a daily basis.”

Nestlé Fruita Vitals is one of Pakistan’s favorite juice brands with millions of consumers. It embodies the spirit of optimism, inspiring youth to look at life through the lens of positivity, making it a favorite beverage brand.

This partnership celebrates Jazz’s reach to over 60 million customers across the country.  

All Jazz/ Warid pre-paid customers can dial *145* 12-digit code# to win Jazz Super 4G data. For more info about the promo, log onto www.jazz.com.pk or call 111 300 300 for any queries about code subscription.

 

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Dr Reza Baqir, Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), emphasized that real economic activity is expected to revive soon on the back of recent economic reforms initiated by SBP and the Government. These comments were made at a session hosted in the UAE by Bank Alfalah, with attendees representing leading financial institutions based in the region. 

Dr Baqir further stated that adopting a market based exchange rate and monetary policy aimed at bringing down inflation were the key steps towards stabilization in the economy and ensuring economic progress in its next stage. This was corroborated by the recent growth in portfolio investments which reflected the investors’ confidence.  

The interactive session focused on understanding the economic outlook for Pakistan and the financial sector as a whole.  

Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Ali Sultan, Group Head of Treasury and Capital Markets at Bank Alfalah, said that leading institutional investors in UAE found the interaction with Governor SBP very productive, as the Governor provided a fresh perspective on reforms and economic policies of the government.  Adding further, he said that we are pleased with the direction and vision established by the State Bank and look forward to closer collaboration between Bank Alfalah and all stakeholders to promote economic development across our operational territory.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) “Led by a group of international entrepreneurs and engineers working in the UAE, ToTok is an independent commercial entity that remains fully committed to protecting our user privacy and security. All ToTok user data is strongly encrypted and all transmission channels are fully protected. ToTok uses the same privacy and security technologies as some of the world’s leading messaging apps, including WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger. In fact, ToTok asks its users for access to less of their data than WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal”. This official statement was issued by ToTok today.

ToTok was built to make it easier for people to communicate and connect with their friends, colleagues, and families around the world. Despite the misleading and outright false accusations carried in certain media outlets recently, ToTok has seen an outpouring of support and trust fromtens of millions of users, including more than 20 million who continue to use the app regularly.

The message to our users and everyone around the world is, “ToTok is still going strong”, the statement added.

While we disagreed with the removal of ToTok from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, we have implemented every specific change requested by both Apple and Google. We remain eager to cooperate with the two companies to get ToTok back in the app stores for good.

Our company has sought and continues to seek a dialogue with Apple and Google by calling, emailing, and reaching out on social media, inviting the two companies to visit the ToTok office in Abu Dhabi. Regrettably, there has been no return communications from Apple since January 7, 2020 and from Google since February 15, 2020.

The statement further added that “the time to resume dialogue and cooperation is now. As the global community battles the widespread outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19), schools, universities, and offices around the world are closing to help contain the virus. Teleworking and remote learning have suddenly become the norm in many parts of the world. As an app with superior audio and video capabilities, ToTok calls on Google and Apple to work with us to make it easier, not harder, for people around the world to communicate.”

We would also like to assure our users, and the global community, that our app is secure, safe to use, and remains free for everyone. Until ToTok is back on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, the app remains available for download to Android users on ToTok’s official website (https://totok.ai/download-android), through the Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo app stores, or via popular third-party stores such as Apkpure, UpToDown, Aptoide, GetJar, Softonic.

OICCI members meet Prime Minister to assure Foreign Investors interest in Pakistan 

Islamabad (Muhammad Yasir) The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, held an interactive session on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 with the Managing Committee members of Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) at the Prime Minister House, Islamabad where he also shared his views on the current economic situation of the country.

Shazad Dada, President OICCI informed the Prime Minister that “OICCI is the largest chamber of commerce in Pakistan based on economic contribution and has always been in the forefront as an FDI ambassador of Pakistan and promoted the positive aspects of the country and the number of business opportunities it offers to potential foreign investors and diplomats. OICCI members Walk the Talk and have been significant investors as a group and in 2018 alone have made capital investment of over USD2.7 billion, and USD 13 billion in past 7 years”.

The OICCI team shared key findings of the recently released 2019 OICCI ‘Perception and Investment survey’, which indicated that an overwhelming 75% of the respondents will recommend new FDI to their parent companies, which is a very positive sign for the economic outlook of the country. The findings also show that foreign investors’ view of the GOP is better than what it was in the 2017 survey, with the government now more engaged with stakeholders on Policy issues, the government functionaries have better understanding and are more committed and capable to resolve investors’ issues. However only 10% of the investors are fully satisfied with GOP Policies and 6% are fully satisfied on policy implementation. The survey also reveals that the governments of Punjab and Sindh are perceived as less investor friendly than the case at the time of the last survey in 2017. The PM was also apprised of the fact that contract enforcement is a serious issue with 68 % respondents stating that as per their experience it takes over 5 years’ for resolution of commercial disputes.

The OICCI members also presented to PM the key challenges in attracting sizeable FDI in the country and also offered recommendations towards creating a conducive and enabling environment for FDI. Shazad Dada emphasised on the need for “focused international projection to dilute negative perception of the country, predictability, transparency and consistency of policy and its implementation as key factors for success’. He further requested the PM to direct the relevant persons to immediately address major issues of tax refunds and circular debt, actively and productively engage with key stakeholders like OICCI, ensure seamless coordination between Federal and Provincial legislations, make Ease of Doing Business visible and accepted by business, including through simplification of the tax regime and providing execution capacity and funding to Digital Pakistan Program for accelerated outcomes (in 2018 OICCI had presented to the PM Recommendations on National Programme for Digital Transformation), reduce number of regulators and regulations and do capacity building and accountability and deliver on promises, including on protection of IPR, functional SEZs and settlement of Pharma pricing issues.

The Prime Minister, Imran Khan appreciative the contribution of OICCI members to the economy of the country and termed them as ambassadors of Pakistan who speak up about the positive aspects of the country and the opportunities in Pakistan at all international forums and have also invested heavily in the country over the years. The Prime Minister promised full support to foreign investors in addressing their issues and also shared salient points of the government’s economic recovery strategy which he said will ensure sustainable economic growth in the medium term and set the country on a clear path for recovery and that the results of economic strategy will be visible during the next six to nine months.

Mr Imran Khan also appreciated the OICCI for sharing the recommendations for addressing investors’ concerns and assured that the government will act upon the recommendations. 

The OICCI is the collective voice of all major foreign investors in Pakistan. Established over 160 years ago in 1860, the OICCI is today not only engaged in the promotion and protection of existing foreign investment in the country and to attract new foreign investors, its diversified activities contribute significantly to supporting commerce and industry across the country. The nearly 200 OICCI members, from 35 different countries, 50 of whom are associates of the 2019 Global Fortune 500 companies, have a presence in 14 sectors of the economy and contribute nearly one third of Pakistan’s total tax revenue and have assets of over US$ 102 billion.

Philip Morris (Pakistan) Limited results for year ended December 31, 2019 impacted due to manufacturing optimization

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)  Philip Morris (Pakistan) Limited (PMPKL) announced an operating loss before tax of PKR 2,444 million for the year ended December 31, 2019.

The Operating loss before tax was mainly due to the management decision to reorganize its operational footprint by closing its factory in Kotri, which was essential to ensure long term sustainability of the business in Pakistan considering the unpredictable fiscal environment. Excluding the one off impairment and employee separation costs which was the result of the closure of the Kotri factory and GLT Voluntary Separation Scheme, the Company would have recorded an Operating Profit before tax of PKR 357 million for the year ended December 31st, 2019, instead of Operating loss before tax as mentioned above.

During the year, compliant tax paid tobacco industry faced challenges from the non-paid illicit sector as government continued to impose heavy excise increases with limited enforcement. The government announced an increase in FED in Value tier of 46% in Sept’18 followed by another increase of 32% in Jun’19 which resulted in the increase of price differential between compliant tax paying industry brands and non-tax paid brands selling below minimum legal price (current illicit incidence is 34.7% of the total tobacco market based on December, 2019 – Retail audit). These excessive excise tax increases poses serious threats on the sustainability of the compliant tax paid tobacco industry volume base and are detrimental for the Government revenues in the long run. Therefore, an equitable tax structure with strict implementation of enforcement measures are necessary to restrict illicit sector while ensuring sustainability of the compliant tax paid tobacco industry and Government revenue growth through predictable moderate excise tax increases.

Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Roman Yazbeck, Managing Director PMPKL said, “The management team is committed to improving the overall performance of the company. There are many strategic initiatives under discussion which we believe will have a positive impact on the bottom line. We would like to appreciate the recent enforcement by the Government to curb non-tax paid illicit trade and request for a continued enforcement action to create a level playing field for the legitimate and tax paying manufacturers’”