Day: February 11, 2022

Engro Fertilizers Limited has announced its financial results for the year that ended on 31 December 2021.

According to the notification filed to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the company has booked its highest ever profit of Rs. 21.1 billion, increasing by 16.40 percent as compared with a profit of Rs. 18.13 billion earned in 2020.

Along with the results, the company also announced a final cash dividend of Rs. 5 per share, which is in addition to the interim dividends already paid at Rs. 11.50, cumulating into a full-year dividend of Rs. 16.5/sh, which is the highest ever dividend in history.

The rise in profits was due to higher urea offtake and lower finance costs.

During the year, the net sales of the company increased by 25 percent to Rs. 132.36 billion, as compared to Rs. 105.84 billion. The margins of the company went up to 33 percent from 32 percent during CY20 despite the higher gas rate charges.

The company showed an increase of 7ppts at the gross level in 4QCY21 on a QoQ basis mainly due to a one-off impact of around Rs. 1.7 billion of lower depreciation owing to a change in useful life assessment.

The management apprised that the company ran its Enven plant at full capacity during the last quarter compared to last quarter, where the Enven plant was shut due to maintenance, this helped achieve gas efficiencies.

The gross profits were increased to Rs. 44.07 billion, as compared to Rs. 34.25 billion due to higher sales in 2021. The other income of the company increased to Rs. 1.79 billion in 2021 as compared to Rs. 1.66 billion.

The finance cost came down by 50.50 percent to Rs. 1.60 billion from Rs. 3.23 billion.

The earnings per share of the company were reported at Rs. 15.80 as compared to Rs. 13.58.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Prime Minister Imran Khan said that over 70,000 housing projects worth Rs. 1.4 trillion have been approved by the incumbent government which will have an overall impact of Rs. 7.3 trillion on the construction industry and create 1.2 million jobs.

The premier made these remarks while chairing a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on Housing, Construction, and Development in Islamabad. The meeting was briefed that for the very first time in the history of Pakistan a sustainable ecosystem for low-cost housing has been developed and implemented which has enabled the sector to achieve exponential growth.

The premier said that it is his government’s huge achievement that out of the total 80,000 applications, 35,420 applications amounting to Rs. 130 billion have been approved and a total of Rs. 46 billion has been disbursed to 13,407 applicants so far.

The prime minister said that applications worth Rs. 7 billion are being received weekly out of which Rs. 4 billion are approved and Rs 2 billion are being disbursed every week which shows that the devised system is working efficiently.

He said that the government’s biggest challenge is to change the elitist mindset of financial institutions and ensure the facilitation of common people in getting loans. He added that under the loan scheme, on average, a loan worth Rs. 3.6 million is approved and disbursed. The statistics show that the biggest beneficiary of subsidized loans are the middle and lower-income classes, he said further.

The premier said that in the last three years of the government, there has been a 148 percent increase in housing finance and the expected approval of Rs. 517 billion till December 2022 reflects the steps taken by the government to facilitate the low-cost housing and the construction industry.

The meeting was briefed that the foreclosure law has been implemented in letter and spirit and long-term loans (up to 20 years) with subsidized markup (as low as only 2 percent) are being given. In addition to that, a cost subsidy of Rs. 300,000 for low-income housing schemes and a 90 percent tax waiver have resulted in encouraging the private sector, which is actively participating in the construction of housing units under the schemes. The projects include urban, peri-urban, urban regeneration, government-funded and private sector projects.

The meeting was also briefed about the transparent and automated process to receive and process the applications which has resulted in targeting the needful lower and middle-income classes. This is being ensured by the development of one window digital portal with an automated applicant tracking system by development authorities.

The meeting was also briefed on figures regarding the total low-cost housing construction activity since 2018. According to figures, a total of 161,924 low-cost housing units were approved, out of which 45,191 units are under construction and 20,898 units have been completed. Before the subsidies, foreclosure law and low-cost housing schemes by the current government, the sector was in shambles.

A breakup of the government-financed low-cost housing projects was also given according to which 4000 units in Farash Town, 4000 units in LDA City, 1320 units in Jalozai, 245 units in Raiwind, 324 units in Sargodha and Chiniot, and 1800 units at Angoori road are being constructed with completion deadlines before the end of 2022.

The meeting was also told that a total of 2507 projects worth Rs. 627 billion have been registered on the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) portal under Fixed Tax Regime with an impact of Rs. 3.135 trillion on the economy.

The premier directed to complete the projects in the defined timelines and emphasized taking steps to improve and ease the process for low-cost housing projects.

The meeting was attended by federal ministers Shaukat Tarin and Fawad Chaudhary, Minister of State Farrukh Habib, SAPM Dr Shehbaz Gill, Governor State Bank, Chairman NAPHDA Lt. Gen Anwar Ali Haider (Retd), CEO RUDA Imran Amin, chief secretaries of Punjab and Balochistan and concerned senior officials.

Source: Pro Pakistani

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has abolished or reduced the sales tax on all petroleum products from January 16, 2022. It has abolished sales tax on light diesel oil from the said date.

FBR issued on Thursday an SRO.183(i)/2022 to amend S.R.O. 57(I)/2016. According to the notification, the general sales tax (GST) on petrol has been reduced from 2.50 percent to 0.79 percent, showing a decrease of 1.71 percent.

The sales tax on high-speed diesel oil has been reduced from 5.44 percent to 3.17 percent, reflecting a decrease of 2.27 percent. Likewise, the sales tax on Kerosene has been decreased three percent, bringing it down from 8.30 percent to 5.30 percent.

The federal government has also reduced the rate of petroleum levy to absorb the international oil price rise with effect from February 1, 2022.

Notably, the price of petroleum products has peaked at $90 per barrel in the international market — the highest level since 2014 with an increase of 14.5 percent in January over December.

Based on the existing levels of consumption, the estimated revenue loss on account of zero sales tax on petroleum products would be between Rs. 21 billion to Rs. 25 billion in one month, an official of the tax machinery told ProPakistani on condition of anonymity.

The Finance Division had said that the existing GST rate and petroleum levy on various petroleum products were well below the budgeted targets and that the government was bearing the revenue loss of around Rs. 30 billion (fortnightly) from what was budgeted to the current petroleum levy and sales tax rates.

The petroleum levy on petroleum products has also been revised. The rate of petroleum levy on petrol has been reduced from Rs. 17.62 per liter to Rs. 13.92 per liter, on HSD [high speed deisel] from Rs. 17.14 to Rs. 9.30 per liter, on SKO [superior kerosene oil] from Rs. 5.91 to Rs. 1 per liter and on LDO [light deisel oil] from Rs. 7.66 to Rs. 5.50 per liter.

Source: Pro Pakistani