Irish unveil harshest cuts, tax hikes in history

Ireland’s Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan (L), listens as Prime Minister Brian Cowen speaks during a press conference to announce the National Recovery Plan, in Dublin, on November 24, 2010. Ireland kept its prized low corporation tax on Wednesday, but outlined plans to overhaul income and sales levies, as the debt-laden eurozone nation braced for a multi-billion-euro EU-IMF bailout. Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen presented a series of tax rises and cuts to public sector pay, pensions and social welfare in a bid to slash a huge deficit and save 15 billion euros (20 billion dollars) by 2014. – AFP Photo

DUBLIN: Ireland has unveiled the harshest budget measures in its history, a four-year plan to slash deficits by euro15 billion ($20 billion) so it can receive a massive bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

The austerity plan axes thousands of state jobs, trims welfare benefits and pensions, and imposes new taxes on property and water. In all, it seeks to cut euro10 billion ($13.3 billion) from spending and raise euro5 billion ($6.7 billion) in extra taxes from 2011 to 2014.

Circular debt hits E&P companies

KARACHI: The rising circular debt has even hit the oil and gas exploration sector, where drilling activities dropped by 22 per cent during the first eight months of the current fiscal owing to the liquidity crunch, an official of the ministry of petroleum said on Wednesday.

Only 67 wells have been drilled so far, including carry-over wells, compared will 86 wells during the same period last year, said the official, requesting anonymity. He said if carry-over wells of the last year are excluded from this total, the number of new wells remains only 40 this fiscal — 11 wells lower than last year.

Dr Hafeez Sheikh briefed on debt

ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry higher-ups have informed Finance Advisor Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh that the country’s external debt will increase by $2 billion to $60 billion and the domestic debt by Rs424 billion to Rs4.57 trillion by the end of 2010-11.
The officials briefed the advisor recently that there was a need to formulate and adopt a holistic debt management strategy.

PSO gets Rs8 billion to trim circular debt

ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry on Friday paid Rs8 billion to Pakistan State Oil to reduce its circular debt, however the largest oil marketing company has expressed it concerns over the issue. 
 
In a meeting with the officials of petroleum ministry and the finance ministry and the PSO management here on Friday, it was acknowledged that the circular debt had been caused because of mismanagement and recovery problems by Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco).

State Bank to introduce electronic bond trading

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) intends to introduce an electronic bond trading platform early next year to provide investors real-time information about market yields resulting in enhanced liquidity and better price discovery in the fixed-income market.

This was stated by Governor State Bank, Syed Salim Raza, in a keynote address on ‘Developing Next Generation Capital and Commodity Markets Ecosystem in Pakistan: Creating Value, Inclusive Growth in the Society’ at the South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE) country roundtable held here on Thursday.