Posted on 08 February 2012 by Tea Server
Chitral — Chitral district has had the maximum loan write-offs amongst the calamity hit KP districts according to statistics released by the State Bank of Pakistan. 10,000 borrowers had obtained loan worth Rs506 million in Chitral which included 7,597 borrowers obtaining loans of Rs148.84 million from the First Microfinance Bank, which have been waived off. [...]
Posted on 24 January 2012 by Tea Server
The State Bank’s annual report makes special mention of the issues of governance and sends out a red alert to the government to fix the economy before Pakistan faces an economic collapse.
Posted on 14 January 2012 by Tea Server
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) & State Bank of Pakistan have jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 11th January 2012 at Karachi, to formalize cooperation between the two institutions for a common objective of promoting Mobile Banking in Pakistan. With this MoU, both the regulators (PTA and SBP) have shown their interest and commitment in stimulating mobile banking services in the country. The MoU was signed at a local hotel in Karachi after a meeting of all stakeholders involved in Mobile Banking followed by a signing ceremony. Mr. Farooq Ahmed Awan, Secretary (IT),, Mr. Yaseen Anwer Governor State Bank of Pakistan and Dr. Muhammad Yaseen Chairman PTA witnessed the ceremony. Senior management of the commercial banks, cellular Mobile operators as well as seniors officers from PTA and SBP also attended the ceremony.
Chairman PTA, Dr. Muhammad Yaseen while addressing the audience highlighted the potential of Mobile Banking services in Pakistan as only 12% of the adult population of Pakistan has access to formal banking services so far. Out of totlal population of 177 Million, only 27 million people have access to the banking services. Today Pakistan has over 122 million cellular mobile subscribers which is the potential target market for mobile banking services. With the upcoming 3G licensing this potential will increase by many folds.
Governor State Bank of Pakistan while speaking at the event, said that MoU signed between PTA and State Bank will be remembered as a mile stone in the history of Telecom and banking sectors. He said that branchless banking in Pakistan will have positive impact on the GDP growth of the country. He further said that branchless banking is a modern facility which will be beneficial for people of Pakistan. Admiring the role of PTA, the Governor State Bank said that it is a vibrant and forward looking regulator which is playing important role to promote and develop the emerging field of branchless and mobile banking in the country. The Governor State Bank said at present the number branchless banking in the country is slightly over 10,000. Total number of accounts opened till now stand at over 800,000. The average number of transactions a day through branchless banking are around 180,000 he added.
As agreed with SBP, PTA will issue Class Value Added Services licenses to third party services Providers who will act as facilitator and mediator between telcos and financial institutions for smooth transactions, data verification and mobile banking applications. This arrangement will be made in accordance with Third Party Service Provider Regulations to be issued by PTA as well as guidelines by SBP. Third Party licenses will be beneficial for the FI’s and Mobile operators as it will avoid cost duplication as well as reduce the cost of provision of mobile banking services. Through Third Party Service Providers (TPSP), Mobile Consumer of any network would be able to receive and transfer money all across the country. Particularly, the lower strata of the country would be able to remit their finances back home easily. After implementation of proposed arrangement, the consumers will have the most attractive benefit of keeping bank account in their pocket with advantages like low cost and fast transfers etc.
Posted on 01 January 2012 by Tea Server
While the rhetoric in the media is largely made up about issues of access to resources and state services, the wider implications for ignoring inequality are ignored.
Some quick thoughts on this.
1) Given the minuscule number of tax payers in the country, the idea of having a progressive taxation system that redistributes wealth from the rich to the poor is non-existent. We still live in a system where individuals, even those who can well afford it, expect the state to provide them services for free.
2) The states inability to raise enough taxes forces it to borrow money from the State Bank, commercial bank or foreign sources. In all of these cases the increase in inflation and the burden of repaying the debt is borne primarily by those who the state should be protecting. The “haves” however are net beneficiaries through low or non existent tax obligations.
3) Links between politicians, civil servants, the military, industrialists and feudal networks insures that resources are allocated in a manner that serves their own interests. Laws, systems and methods that would help to reduce inequality either by redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor, or by improving the state of the poor are non-existent or co-opted to suit the interests of a small segment of society.
This list could go on for several more points, but I think you get the picture. As we rally against price hikes, increase in the cost of gas, oil and electricity, corruption and mismanagement, we should stop to remember that even in the worst of times, they are winners and losers. The winners continue to win big, while the losers lose more badly. The long term costs of increased inequality are mostly ignored.
The following talk best summarises alot of the points I would agree with.
Posted on 25 December 2011 by Tea Server
Yousaf Raza Gilani
The other day Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani thundered over the conspiracies being hatched against his democratic elected government but a common Pakistani wants to ask Prime Minister why did he stay inaudible over several machinations on his side of camp which have maligned the democracy like never before. All the below mentioned proceedings are compiled upon the media reports and I invite all readers to add if I have missed some.
It would have been great to see Prime Minister showing some concern on all these issues. May Allah show the right path to our ruling élite…