Ishaq Dar issued a firm directive to the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association

  * Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has issued a firm directive to the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), demanding full compliance with the agreed-upon retail price of sugar. This move aims to stabilize market prices and ensure affordability for consumers across Pakistan.

Body:

 * In a recent high-level meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Dar reviewed the current sugar market situation, focusing on adherence to the previously established price agreement.

 * Dar expressed his satisfaction with the observed downward trend in sugar prices, which he attributed to stringent market oversight and regulatory enforcement.

 * However, he emphasized the necessity of consistent compliance from the PSMA to maintain price stability.

 * The directive mandates that the PSMA ensure retail sugar prices remain at or below the agreed-upon level throughout Pakistan.

 * The governments goal is to protect consumers from price gouging, and to maintain a stable supply of sugar throughout the country.

 * The government is also actively monitoring supply, to make sure that there are no artificial shortages created.

 * The Competition Commision of Pakistan (CCP) is also monitoring the sugar industry, to ensure that there are no anti-competitive practices taking place.

DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE & INVESTIGATION (INLAND REVENUE) LAHORE RECOVERS SALES TAX EVASION WORTH BILLIONS OF RUPEES

The Directorate of Intelligence & Investigation (Inland Revenue) Lahore has detected sales tax evasion worth billions of rupees by a reputed company. The company had issued illegal credit notes of huge amounts in Annexure-C of the sales tax returns without corresponding debit notes from the buyers. In this way, the company suppressed output tax to reduce its sales tax liability for the tax periods in which illegal credit notes were issued and thus deprived the national exchequer from due tax revenue. The team of Directorate gathered information meticulously without disturbing the business activity of the company and initiated proceedings under section 38 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 and retrieved the record and documents from the business premises. Thereafter, the company management agreed to deposit the amount of sales tax involved in the credit note issued/claimed in the return of March 2023 along with default surcharge. Thus, timely intervention by the Directorate has led to recovery of sales tax amounting to Rs.1358 Million and default surcharge of Rs.26 Million on 20th June, 2023. The Federal Board of Revenue is committed to eradicate the menace of tax evasion and tax frauds in order to provide level playing field to the businesses that are tax-compliant and contributing to the national exchequer. Accordingly, to place a system check on such fake credit notes, the sales tax return has been amended to disallow suppliers of goods to issue/claim credit notes in the returns without first issuance of debit notes by the corresponding buyers.

TV Anchor Mureed Abbas murder case hearing adjourned

Mureed Abbas murder case hearing was adjourned till July 2, Judge Faraz Chandio was transferred. 

Additional District and Sessions Judge Hatem Aziz Solangi has been appointed. The trial of the case could not start even after three years have passed since the murder of Mureed Abbas. 

Accused Atif Zaman is in jail on judicial remand. One accused Adil Zaman is still at large. The court adjourned further hearing of the case till July 2.

DS Karachi emphasizes on improving Railways efficiency, safety

 By Abdul Qadir Qureshi 

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Emphasizing the imperative need for ensuring immaculate safety aspect in train operation, the Divisional Superintendent Railways, Karachi Division, Kashif Rashed Yusufani, called upon the Divisional Officers and all other concerned personnel to contribute their bit in achieving the cherished objective of providing hazard-free service to railway passengers. 

He was speaking as chief guest at a one ‘Train Safery Operation seminar organized at the Technical Training Center on his directive. 

The seminar was attended by Divisional officers, Assistants, Train examiners, PWI, Guards, Station Masters and other relevant officials. The main objective was to acquaint them about how to take measures in advance to cope with accidents. 

The DS was appreciative of the officials and the staff members who were working efficiently despite problems of material and staff shortage.

He exhorted the officials and subordinates in charges to essential ensure carrying out now and then inspection of various railway installations and told them that timely inspections will surely reduce problems by 60-70 percent because such inspections would surely help pin point the safety related problems. 

He emphasized that no one should hide the problems, if identified, whether it related to track system, rolling stock or engine defection and the same should be forwarded to concerned officials for immediate remedial action.

“The staff must necessarily share the same with their officials as hiding the same or keeping it in abeyance, will be harmful for the railway,” he declared, adding that they will have to work together in making Pakistan Railways a profitable entity. 

His emphasis was that rules and regulations must be observed fully as only this could help the organization in making further advancements.

On the occasion Divisional Transportation Officer (DTO) Sajjad Ahmed Wagho, apprised the seminar participants about the importance of the event in detail and recalled that many lives were lost in trains accidents during the past few years besides accruing financial losses to the railway which also caused damage to the Railways credibility. 

The seminar was informed about three main reasons for accidents which were the condition of tracks, rolling stock problems and human error. Besides, natural calamities, subversion, material shortage and problems in defective signaling system were identified as other causes of accidents. 

The seminar proposed setting up of safety cell, procurement of safety materials, surprise inspections and taking immediate corrective measures of minor deficiencies as short term remedies. 

The seminar was attended, among others, by Deputy DS Shahid Hussain Sammpn, DCO Ishaq Baluch, DME-I Junaid Ahmed, DME-II Habibullah Maher, DN-I Kamran Ghauri, Assistant Operating Officer Shahid Hussain Khilji, Assistant Transportation Officer, Jahan Babar, Station Managers Karachi Cantonment, Karachi City, Keamari, Kotri and Hyderabad.

JDC provided walk-through gates to Karachi University

 

In order to protect the lives of 45,000 students, teachers, and others studying at Karachi University after the recent terrorist attack on the Chinese teachers and to save the students from waiting in the scorching sun, the welfare organization JDC provided 8 security walk-through gates for all the entrances. The walk-through gate was handed over to the Registrar, University of Karachi, Prof. Dr. Maqsood Ali Ansari.

Significance of Diamer-Bhasha dam highlighted

By Masood Sattar Khan

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Pakistan's newly posted Ambassador to China, Moin-ul-Haq has highlighted the importance of construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam which is expected to bring about across the board benefits in socio-economic sectors of the country. 

The Ambassador in his twitter account highlighted the significance of the project apparently following the publication of an article in ‘The Global Times’ acclaimed as one of the most popular English newspapers in China. 

"The key project is yet another concrete example of close Pak-China Friendship" the Ambassador reckoned. 

The newspaper article titled ‘China aids construction of Pakistan’s ‘Three Gorges Dam’ despite pandemic’ had pointed out that despite the novel coronavirus pandemic, China and Pakistan were stepping up efforts on committed projects focusing on cooperation in industrial development, agriculture and the improvement of people's livelihoods. 

The Diamer-Bhasha Dam and Power Project, also referred to as the ‘Three Gorges Project’ joined a long list of bilateral cooperation efforts between the two countries. 

“As a country with an agricultural population accounting for about 60 percent of its total population and agriculture accounting for more than 20 percent of its GDP, the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha Dam remained of great strategic significance for improving Pakistan's water security and sustainable development and it has therefore been supported by successive governments,” Wang Zhihua, economic and commercial minister counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, told the Global Times. 

"The Diamer-Bhasha Dam and Power Project, being the third largest dam in Pakistan, will achieve multipurpose objectives. It will increase the water storage capacity of Pakistan from 30 to 48 days. The people of Pakistan are grateful to China, which has once again decided to help Pakistan secure and ensure its strategic water security in the 21st century," Syed Hasan Javed, director of the Chinese Studies Center of Excellence at the National University of Science and Technology in Islamabad (NUST), remarked. 

The dam is scheduled to be completed by 2029. During the construction 16,500 jobs will be directly created.

Shahbaz Sharif escapes shoe attack in Lahore

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif escaped a shoe attack at the South Asia Labour Conference, a private TV channel reported on Thursday.

The police arrested the attacker who threw a shoe at the chief minister but missed his target. However, Shahbaz showed no reaction to the incident and remained calm on the stage. Later on, he ordered the release of the attacker, named Imdad Ali, working in a private Sindhi television.

Earlier, the security staff had arrested the attacker to investigate if he did it himself or any other power was behind the incident. The chief minister said that he and his government believes in freedom of expression and difference of opinion.

Before throwing the show, the attacker raised slogans against the expected restrictions on a news channel. He told journalists that he was not ashamed of his act. He said that he flushed out his anger by throwing shoe. The journalists also condemned the incident, and said the attacker should have registered his anger in a separate meeting with the chief minister. (DailyTimes)