Business & Economy

GDS formula: NFC panel fails to evolve consensus ISLAMABAD (October 10, 2009): National Finance Commission (NFC) sub-committee on new Gas Development Surcharge (GDS) formula failed on Friday to evolve consensus and change respective stance of Sindh and Balochistan on the new proposed GDS distribution formula.

Planning Commission seeks departmental performance reports from provinces: first quarter review of PSDP 2009-2010 on October 19 KARACHI (October 10, 2009): The Planning Commission (PC) has asked all the provincial governments to furnish performance reports of their departments to reprioritise uplift schemes and adjust them in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2009-10, it is learnt.

Government officials asked to personally monitor uplift works PESHAWAR (October 10, 2009): NWFP Minister for Information, Transport and Inter-Provincial Co-ordination Mian Iftikhar Hussain has asked the concerned government officials to personally monitor and supervise the uplift schemes by ensuring the use of standard materials in these schemes.

Second phase of rehabilitation in Malakand: SPC approves Rs 86.215 billion for development ISLAMABAD (October 10, 2009): The Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) on IDPs has approved in-principle Rs 86.215 billion for the development of social, physical infrastructure and productive sectors for the second phase of reconstruction and rehabilitation in Malakand Division. This decision was taken in the meeting of the committee chaired by the Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani at PM house here on Friday.

FPCCI and other trade bodies agree on VAT ISLAMABAD (October 10, 2009): Leading business and trade associations including Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) have assured the Value Added Tax (VAT) team of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) full cooperation in implementation of VAT at the retail stage.

Clarification KARACHI (October 10, 2009): Apropos a news item that appeared in BR issue of October 8, 2009 regarding Asad Ali Shah being elected as chairman of the inter-governmental working group expert on International Standards on Accounting and Reporting of the United Nation Commission on Trade and Development (Unctad), it is clarified that Asad Ali Shah is the former president and Abdul Rahim Suriya is the current president of the Unctad.

LTIA condemns industrialist's torture LAHORE (October 10, 2009): Industrialists of Lahore Township Industrial Area (LTIA) have threatened to observe one-hour strike from Saturday (from 4:00pm to 5:00pm) if those involved in torture on Wasim Magoon, area industrialist, were not arrested. The LTIA convened an emergency meeting under the chair of association's chairman Baber Mehmood Chaudhry here on Friday.

Systems Limited to service healthcare industry in USA KARACHI (October 10, 2009): Systems Limited, a provider of technology solutions, strategic consulting services and knowledge process outsourcing has acquired US based eDoc Synergy, a privately-held provider of healthcare technology. An announcement on Friday said that the eDoc Synergy headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, has state-of-the-art SaaS based Electronic Health Records (EHR/EMR) and Practice Management Products.

Activity at Karachi and Qasim ports KARACHI (October 10, 2009): The Karachi Port handled 134,763 tonnes of cargo including 111,275 tonnes import and 23,488 tonnes export cargo including 3,094 empty and loaded containers during last 24 hours ending at 0700 hours on Friday.

Shipping Intelligence KARACHI (October 10, 2009): Karachi Shipping Intelligence report incorporating changes till 7 am on Friday (October 09, 2009).