According to data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday, the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves climbed by roughly 10% on a weekly basis.
SBP Record
The SBP’s foreign currency reserves were recorded at $4.433 billion on April 14, up $394 million from $4.038 billion on April 7.
In a statement, the central bank said that “the increase in reserves was mainly due to the receipt of $300 million of the Government of Pakistan commercial loan.”
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) recently approved the third and final $300 million disbursement under its $1.3 billion arrangement with Pakistan.
The country’s total liquid foreign currency reserves, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, remained at $9.965 billion, up $400 million from the previous week. The net reserves held by banks was at $5.532 billion, up $6 million from the previous week.
According to Arif Habib Limited, current reserves are sufficient for less than 0.97 months of import cover, a little improvement above last week’s import cover of 0.88 months.
FBR Announces Significant Increase in Steel Valuation
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has declared a significant increase in the minimum value of supply for five locally produced steel goods, raising the incidence of sales tax on these items.
The FBR has issued SRO.501(I)/2022 to supersede SRO 489(I)/2022 in order to re-fix the minimum value of supply of locally made steel commodities for the purpose of ad valorem sales tax payment.
The minimum value of steel bars and other long profiles has been raised to Rs. 225,000 per metric tonne (PMT) from Rs. 164,037 per metric tonne under the new regulation.
The minimum value of steel billets has now been increased to Rs. 195,000 per metric tonne, up from Rs. 133,813 per metric tonne previously.
The minimum value of supply of domestically made steel ingots/bala has been increased from Rs. 126,000 to Rs. 180,000.
The minimum value of ship plates has been increased significantly from Rs. 129,584 per metric tonne to Rs. 172,000 per metric tonne. The minimum value of other re-rollable iron and steel scrap has been raised to Rs. 160,880 from Rs. 125,688 PMT.
The FBR said that if the price at which the above products are supplied is greater than the price established herein, the sales tax will be paid on the higher price.
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