USD Archives - Lokmarg - News Views Blogs

Pakistan: Govt Hikes Petrol Levy By 5 PKR Per Litre

By LokMarg 1st July 2023

The Pakistan government on Saturday hiked the petroleum development levy (PDL) on petrol by 5 Pakistani Rupees (PKR) from 50-55 PKR per litre, Pakistan-based Geo News reported on Saturday.

The latest hike comes a day after the 3 billion USD staff-level agreement signed with the International Monetary Fund.
The PDL on petrol has been imposed from the start of the new fiscal year, ie Saturday.

Moreover, the ministry said there would be no increase in the development levy on high-speed diesel (HSD), which is Rs50 per litre.

Earlier, on Friday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced that diesel prices had been increased by Rs7.50 for the next fortnight; however, he said petrol prices would remain the same.

“There has been no increase in the price of petrol,” said Dar in a late-night press conference.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance has warned of challenges originating from uncertain external and domestic economic environments, including higher inflation and external debt repayments, due to lesser foreign exchange inflows, according to Geo News.

The ministry, in its monthly outlook bulletin, projected that the inflation for the month of May will remain in the range of 34-36 per cent.

“Pakistan’s economy experienced 0.29 per cent provisional GDP growth in the fiscal year 2022-23 on account of many challenges emanating from the uncertain external and domestic economic environment,” the ministry said.

Pakistan and the IMF on Friday reached a long-awaited staff-level agreement (SLA) on a 3 billion USD “stand-by arrangement” (SBA), the global lender announced.

“I am pleased to announce that the IMF team has reached a staff-level agreement with the Pakistani authorities on a nine-month Stand-by Arrangement (SBA) in the amount of SDR2,250 million (about $3 billion or 111 per cent of Pakistan’s IMF quota),” Nathan Porter, the IMF’s Mission Chief to Pakistan, said in a statement.

He added, “The new SBA builds on the authorities’ efforts under Pakistan’s 2019 EFF-supported programme which expires end-June. This agreement is subject to approval by the IMF’s Executive Board, which is expected to consider this request by mid-July”.

The deal comes after an eight-month delay and offers some respite to Pakistan, which is battling an acute balance of payments crisis and falling foreign exchange reserves.

According to Geo News, the federal government has taken a slew of policy measures since an IMF team arrived in Pakistan earlier this year, including a revised 2023-24 budget last week to meet the lender’s demands.

Other adjustments demanded by the IMF before clinching the deal included reversing subsidies in power and export sectors, hikes in energy and fuel prices, jacking up the key policy rate to 22 per cent, a market-based currency exchange rate and arranging for external financing.

It also got Pakistan to raise over 385 billion rupees (USD 1.34 billion) in new taxation through a supplementary budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year and the revised budget for 2023-24.

The painful adjustments have already fueled all-time high inflation of 38% year-on-year in May, as per Geo News. (ANI)

Brad Pitt To Sell His LA Home For $ 40MN

By LokMarg 30th March 2023

Brad Pitt is officially saying adieu to his Los Angeles home.

Pitt has found a buyer for the sprawling estate he’s owned for nearly 30 years in the neighbourhood of Los Feliz. According to People, a US-based media company, he was trying to sell his property for USD 40 million in January.
According to the source, Pitt decided to sell the 1.9-acre property because he’s “looking for something smaller” in the L.A. area.

This is the house where Pitt and his ex-wife Angelina Jolie raised their six children — Maddox, 21, Pax, 19, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 16, and 14-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. The couple split in 2016.

Following their split and since being ruled legally single in 2019, the former couple has been in ongoing negotiations regarding the custody of their children and the dividing of their financial assets, including another impressive property: their Chateau Miraval estate in the South of France. (ANI)

Musk Threatens To Name Shame, Backing Out Advertisers

By LokMarg 5th November 2022

Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened to name-shame the advertisers who are backing out from Twitter after the micro-blogging site announced mass layoffs.

While replying to a user on Twitter, Elon Musk said, “Thank you. A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.”
Mike Davis, a user on Twitter said, “Dear @elonmusk: You have nearly 114,000,000 Twitter followers. Name and shame the advertisers who are succumbing to the advertiser boycotts. So we can counter-boycott them. And get your USD 8 monthly subscription going asap. So we can start to make up for lost revenue now.”

In a series of tweets, Tesla CEO has blamed “activist groups pressuring advertisers” for a “massive drop in revenue” as the company engages in mass layoffs.

“Twitter had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America,” he further tweeted.

To defend his decision over the mass layoff, Elon Musk said that Twitter was losing more than USD 4 million per day and that impacted the employees who were given severance packages.

Taking to Twitter, Elon Musk said, “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately, there is no choice when the company is losing over USD 4M/day. Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.”

On Friday, as per an unsigned internal memo seen by The Verge, Twitter employees were notified in an email that the layoffs were set to begin. Musk is expected to cut roughly half of Twitter’s roughly 7,500-person workforce.

The entrepreneur’s purchase of Twitter for USD 44 billion was completed last week and on that same day, he fired several of the company’s top leaders, including the chief executive Parag Agrawal.

Musk had already indicated that he would make job cuts at Twitter, telling employees at a town-hall meeting this summer that there needs to be “a rationalization of headcount” at the social network. (ANI)

NE To Play Significant Role In Making India USD $5 Tril Economy By 2025: Murmu

By LokMarg 12th October 2022

Asserting that India has become the 5th largest economy in the world, President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday said that the North Eastern Region will play an important role in making India a five trillion dollar economy by 2025.

The President said that there is immense potential for development in the North-Eastern Region.
“Today, the development of the Region is getting a new impetus with various new projects of highways, railways, airways, and waterways. The North Eastern Region, including Tripura, will play an important role in making India a five trillion dollar economy by 2025. She expressed confidence that the aspirations, innovation, and entrepreneurship of the talented and hardworking people, especially the youth of Tripura, will play an important role in achieving this goal,” President said while inaugurating Tripura State Judicial Academy, President’s Secretariat release said.

She also laid the foundation stone for Tripura National Law University at Narsingarh, Agartala today.

The President virtually inaugurated an MLA Hostel at Capital Complex, Agartala, and laid foundation stones for Maharaja Birendra Kishore Manikya Museum & Cultural Centre; IIIT-Agartala; and various projects of the Government of Tripura related to roads, schools, and hostels for students from Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhawan, Agartala.

Addressing the gathering at Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhawan, the President said that projects inaugurated “will not only strengthen the connectivity, education, judiciary and legislature in Tripura but also boost the rich culture of the state.”

According to an official statement, President said that over the past three decades, NLUs have played a significant role in the field of law education. Today with the growth of the economy, the legal profession has also expanded in many dimensions. She expressed hope that NLU Tripura will emerge as a major center of legal education, not only in the Northeast but across the country.

The President said that the youth of India have made a unique identity in the field of Information Technology, all over the world. She was confident that the permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Agartala will set new benchmarks in the field of Information Technology.

Speaking at the event, President added that said that a holistic education system is essential for the development of the nation and the progress of our youth. Along with higher education, we should give more emphasis to primary education. She was happy to note that the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, in association with the State Government of Tripura, has launched ‘Vidya-Jyoti Mission 100’ under which 100 existing higher secondary schools will be converted into quality education institutions with state-of-the-art facilities, it added. (ANI)