E-paper Profit 30th April, 2012

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profit.com.pk

Sunday, 29 April, 2012

ON THE FAMILY FRONT

Uncle Sam to spare some cash for his ‘favourite’ nephew US companies to invest millions of dollars in Pakistan in the two years: Salim Ghauri g Uncle needs nephew to be healthy and ‘stable’ for his own interests g

LAHORE

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NAUMAN TASLEEM

MERICaN business Forum (abF) President Salim Ghauri said that abF member companies will invest millions of dollars in the next two years in Pakistan, subject to political stability. He was extending welcome address to US ambassador Cameron Munter at the 3rd annual Dinner of american business Forum at a local Club. He said the United States of america has a huge stake in Pakistani businesses landscape. They have invested hundreds of millions in Pakistan because they believe in Pakistan’s potential. In the next two years 350 to USD 400million will be invested in Pakistan by abF Member companies, he added.

Salim said the abF members are also credited for 15,000 direct and 30,000 indirect employment in the last one year. american businesses are not only the largest source of Foreign Direct Investment in Pakistan; they are also the heaviest tax payers, he added. He said as Pakistan continues to pave its way towards a mature, more stable democratic future, 2012 promises to be one of the many critical years in our country’s history. The dynamics building up to and eventually through the elections themselves can prove to be challenging, but I genuinely believe that Pakistan is now mature enough to overcome the difficulties and emerge out the other side even stronger, and best geared for the future,

he stressed. However, said President abF, in order to truly realize the economic potential of the country, the Government needs to take concrete steps towards tax rationalisation, in line with the examples of bRICS and emerging Caucasian countries of Central asia, where corporate & personal income taxes are kept at lower rate to encourage investment and spending. already, he pointed out, the election year would imply an election budget, and a surplus of irrational funds and unnecessary cash flow will be available at this moment.

This will only go on to an imbalance in the economy, and ultimately negatively affect our trade deficit. The abF companies will have a great role to play in this phase of Pakistani politics, he added.

Salim underlined that members of abF have played an instrumental role in community building as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility efforts – as we are well aware of our role as responsible corporate citizens. In fact, US companies were amongst the first to respond and support people during the tragic 2010 and 2011 floods, which affected more than 20% of the country.

Companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and others are the reason why our communities continue to receive short and long term support, in the time of need. Even through abF platform, members have contributed towards construction of houses, which will soon be commissioned in Sindh and handed over to the people affected by flooding.

He said the abF has also signed an MoU with USaID to make abF eligible for economic and humanitarian assistance. Salim said he was invited recently by the State Department to represent Pakistani business community at the Global business Conference in Washington DC. With Hillary Clinton as the chair person and with representatives of more than 120 countries in attendance, it was a great honour and a humbling moment to be recognised at such a forum. It was also a great opportunity to learn about the directions and aims of the international community, looking at business opportunities and evaluating our own standing within international community. President abF also appreciated the US Consul General, Nina Fite and her office for support and cooperation with local business community.

cOMMENT

When headlines don’t help

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HE recent hijack drama may have been a bad joke gone horribly wrong, but its ramifications are a good example of how sentiment matters.

Not only did the carrier and passengers lose in terms of time and money, but subsequent headlines did no favours to our national image in international circles, where investor decisions are crucial to our immediate survival. For the type of investors Islamabad wishes, rather needs, to engage, front-page headlines in The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal hold significant value. and since Pakistan has made for consistently bad press for a prolonged period of time, it is little surprise that investors remain shy.

From the habitat of terrorism to a convicted prime minister, institutions at cross purposes, bhoja crash, terror attacks, failing economy, hijack scares – it’s a surprise the economy is functioning at all.

Yet the stock market is locked in a stellar bull run, with its occasional retracements of course. How much that reflects sound fundamentals and just how much it exposes weak regulation is another debate, but there’s no denying it’s a high-paying playing field begging for serious investment. The matter of marketing this potential should be given far more serious thought in Islamabad than seems the case.

It is unfortunate that media arms of both civil and military institutions have failed to present a truer account of their recent endeavours than the world has been made witness to. The less said about state media the better, true, especially since it refuses to learn from past mistakes, and remains engaged in rubbishing all things opposition instead of building a positive narrative around itself.

Truly a place where the more things change, the more they remain the same, musical chairs and all. The need to change course has never been more urgent. an essential pillar of state with little constructive ability is not much good at all.

Oil report seen supporting Iran sanctions WASHINGTON

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REUTERS

lobal oil inventories grew over the last two months despite the loss of further supplies from Iran, according to a U.S. report that gave leeway for the obama administration to press ahead with sanctions on the oPEC nation.

The Energy Information administration report, required every 60 days by the Iran sanctions law President barack obama signed in December, gave a mostly positive assessment of global oil supplies, which typically build at this time of year.

World oil and motor fuel supplies exceeded demand by 500,000 barrels per day in March and april, the EIa said, allowing consumer countries to build cushions against any potential losses from U.S. and EU measures

against Tehran.

Inventories were helped by strong production from Saudi arabia, which pumped 9.8 million barrels per day, about 900,000 bpd more than it did in March and april a year ago, it said.

“The report provides that comfort level that (the administration) can continue toward implementation of the sanctions without fear that the market is poised to go crazy for them,” said David Pumphrey, fellow at Center for Strategic and International Studies and former Energy Department official.

The sanctions aim to choke funding to Tehran’s nuclear program by slowing transactions between oil-consuming countries and the Central bank of Iran.

The West contends Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, while Tehran says the program is strictly for civilian purposes.

POTENTIAL SPR TAP: The supply picture was not entirely sunny.

The report said

Iranian oil output has already been hit by sanctions, and that several non-oPEC crude disruptions worsened in March and april. The disruptions add to worries the global oil market could tighten as - outside of Saudi arabia - it lacks significant production capacity. They also support the possibility the administration could tap emergency oil stock piles to cool down high fuel prices. Republicans have slammed obama over high gasoline prices that have hurt consumers as they struggle with a fragile economic recovery ahead of the November 6 election. The U.S. sanctions and a pending EU embargo on Iranian oil have already trimmed the oPEC member’s oil output by 400,000 barrels per day compared with a year ago, the report said.

“EIa believes that Iran’s total liquids production capability has been declining due to its inability to carry out investment projects,” necessary to offset natural oil well decline rates, it

said. In addition, Canadian oil supply problems and ongoing disruptions from Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen compounded worries that petroleum markets could tighten ahead of the June 28 deadline, when obama is allowed to sanction foreign banks over oil-related transactions with the Central bank of Iran. but the White House is unlikely to slow the process ahead of talks in Iraq late next month between Iran and six major powers to settle the nuclear dispute, backers of the sanctions said.

“The last thing the administration would do ahead of baghdad talks would be to show any sign that they are not full steam ahead on oil market sanctions,” said Mark Dubowitz, the head of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a lobbying group for tough Iran sanctions. The administration has said it is considering all options to combat high gasoline prices, including a release of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. “Nothing in today’s report undercuts the administration’s stated motivations for drawing reserves,” said Kevin book, an analyst at ClearView Energy Partners in Washington.

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Sunday, 29 April, 2012

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LccI, THE PROBLEM SOLVER

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Senator Ishaq Dar highlights the importance of launching short and long term projects simultaneously to over energy crisis LAHORE STAFF REPORT

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ENaToR Ishaq Dar has said that the resolution of ongoing energy crisis lies in launching short and longterm projects simultaneously because acute energy shortage would ultimately lead to food shortages.

The Senator was speaking at Private Sector Energy Roundtable arranged the lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Royal Palm on Saturday. lCCI President Irfan Qaiser Shiekh, Chairman Independent Power Producer advisory Council abdullah Yousaf, former WaPDa Chairman Tariq Hameed, Dr Salman Shah, Suleman Najeeb Khan, Director Energy Management Resources Fahat ali, Munawar baseer, Professor Dr Farid Malik gave their presentations on energy situation and its solution while lCCI Senior Vice president Kashif Younis Meher, Vice President Saeeda Nazar, former lCCI Presidents Mian Mohammad ashraf, Mian anjum Nisar and Shahid Hassan Sheik, former Senior Vice President Sheikh Mohammad arshad and former Executive Committee Member Khalid Rafiq performed as panelists.

Ishaq Dar said that the present and the past planners committed mistakes by ignoring this important sector but instead of pondering on past follies, we should focus on energy generation. The Senator said that as many as 500 textile units closed down their operations due to energy shortage. He said that the lack of political will aggravated the energy situation and around 5000 MW of the electricity could easily be secured by giving attention towards this issue. a permanent solution to the country’s energy crisis is direly needed, the Senator said.

Former Finance Minister Dr Salman Shah said deregulation of power sector is a must to solve the energy issue. He quoted the example of telecom sector which is giving huge revenue to the government. He said that single buyer model should be changed now as it has failed to ensure cheaper electricity to the consumers. He Kalabagh Dam (KbD) is the only short-term option to overcome the energy crisis and revive the country’s stagnant

economy. He said KbD was a feasible project and it could be constructed in just four years to produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity at a rate of just Rs 1.5 per unit.

In his opening address, the lCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that energy crisis is disrupting economic and social activities throughout the country and particularly in the Punjab. The situation is causing business closures and unemployment. Incomes, profitability and competitiveness are eroding and energy insecurity is growing. The irony is that all this is happening in a potentially energy rich country.

The lCCI President said that the country is facing fundamental policy, planning, management, investment and regulatory failures in energy sector development and these failures have undermined economic and social wellbeing. He said that the government should come up with a comprehensive and viable energy

policy based on national interests.

Former WaPDa Chairman Tariq Hameed said that small projects up to 500 MW would not resolve the power crisis. There is a need to initiate projects that give quantum jump to the power generation. This aim could be achieved by exploiting the hydro electric potential of country. In this regard detailed studies of Kalabagh Dam (3600 MW), bhasha Dam (4600 MW, Dasu (3000 MW) bonji (7000 MW) have already been prepared by WaPDa. He said that in order to ensure sustained supplies in future, the government should at least start two mega hydro electric projects immediately. Electricity requirement in the country increasing by 8% per annum while during the past four years we have not been able to even plug the shortage that are already existing. The supply and demand gap is increasing every passing year. The former WaPD Chairman said that though energy crisis seems to be the

main issue of our economy at present however, in near future water shortage will be more contentious issue between the provinces.

He said per capita water availability in the country today is 1000 cubic meter. It will start declining below 1000 cubic meter per capita from now onwards which will place the country among water starved nations. Chairman Independent Power Producer advisory Council abdullah Yousaf expressed concern over the ever increasing circular debt which is now touching Rs. 365 billion and is increasing at the rate of Rs one billion per day. He said that the outstanding dues of PEPCo are Rs 350 billion. and this makes the point that Circular debt is a governance issue. He said in the Circular Debt Rs 150 billion are due against public sector which could be recovered through NFC award while the dues against private sector could be recovered by disconnecting the supply of electricity.

abdullah Yousaf said that 2500 MW could be brought back into the system immediately by paying the dues of IPPs. Suleman Najeeb Khan said that Pakistan is abdicating its water rights to India while the bureaucrats are wrongly interpreting the Indus Water Treaty. He cited the example of Neelum-Jehlum Project which gives Pakistan full rights over its waters once it had shown its intention to build the project in 1990.

Munwar baseer said that energy situation could be tackled by giving full responsibility and charge to competent and honest professional as politicians are driven by their own self fulfilling motives and agendas.

Meanwhile, students showed their keen interest in the lCCI lSF Job Fair and people submitted their application. More than 500 hundred people took part in the lCCI lSF motorbike rally from the lCCI to lahore Expo Center while three lucky winners got motorcycle through lucky draw.

Big isn’t bad, banks tell Fed WASHINGTON

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REUTERS

HE largest U.S. banks are accusing the Federal Reserve of attempting to misuse its new regulatory powers to shrink financial giants under the misguided belief that “big is bad.” lobbying groups representing the big banks are pushing back against a set of proposed rules the Fed issued in December to more closely scrutinize the firms and rein in their risk taking after the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

In a letter sent Friday, the groups said the Fed is going too far and is proposing a set of policies on credit exposure and capital standards that go against the intent of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law.

“We submit that an approach grounded in a ‘too big’ or ‘big is bad’ concept is not only contrary to Congress’ intent but is misguided and detrimental to a sound, strong banking system and a strong economy,” the groups wrote.

The letter precedes a meeting next week between Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo and the CEos of large banks, including JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon,

according to a person familiar with the plan.

The meeting was scheduled to talk about the Fed’s annual stress tests on the banks. The banks may try to press him on other issues including their qualms with the December proposal for managing large banks.

The letter was written by The Clearing House association, the american bankers association, the Financial Services Forum, the Financial Services Roundtable and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets association. Comments on the December proposal are due Monday.

The Dodd-Frank law requires the Fed to write rules for overseeing bank holding companies with more than $50 billion in assets to ensure they are not engaging in risky activities that could threaten the financial system.

The groups said the Fed “has set a course,” however, to use these new powers “to achieve indirectly what it was not authorized to address directly - that is, precipitate a dramatic reduction in the size of large banks through size-based regulation.”

Collectively the lobbying groups represent the largest U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc (C.N), bank of america Corp (baC.N), JPMorgan Chase

& Co (JPM.N), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N).

The salvo against the Fed is the latest example of tension over whether there are too many large banks whose potential failure poses a grave threat to the larger financial system.

Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher has taken a more extreme position, recently proposing breaking up the five biggest U.S. banks.

Tarullo, who has been the central bank’s point man on regulation, has been more moderate.

He has never publicly called for breaking up the largest banks. but he has spooked the industry by questioning whether banks can get so big that any future growth does not provide value, through economies of scale, to the financial system or economy.

“It is possible that a firm would need to be quite large and diversified to achieve these economies, but still not as large and diversified as some of today’s firms have become,” he said in a September speech calling for more study of the issue.

In their letter, the groups argue that allowing banks of all sizes benefits the economy and that the largest institutions can provide services their

smaller competitors can not.

“In the 21st century, companies served by international banks compete in a global economic system, exporting finished products, importing raw materials and components, and establishing substantial operations abroad,” the groups wrote.

“They need banks that are competitive around the world and are able to meet quickly and efficiently a wide range of financial needs.”

The 161-page letter gets deep into the details of the rule and of particular concern to the banks is a Fed proposal to limit the credit exposure of big banks to a single counterparty as a percentage of the firm’s regulatory capital.

The credit exposure between the largest of the big banks would be subject to an even tighter limit. a bank with more than $500 billion in consolidated assets could not have a credit exposure of more than 10 percent to another bank of that size.

The letter calls this proposal “unrealistic and onedimensional” and that, among other things, it miscalculates the threats posed by exposure to derivative markets.

The groups also contend the Fed has offered no explanation for why the 10 percent threshold is necessary.

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Safety dominates investor outlook LONDON REUTERS

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aUGHT in a vice between sluggish global growth and worldwide debt deleveraging, investors face another week of potentially gloomy economic news with no relief in sight from the growing concerns about euro zone debt.

The focus will be mainly on the European Central bank’s monthly policy meeting, the U.S. non-farm payrolls report and data on the outlook for the world’s manufacturing sector, which still represents 20 percent of the global economy. but these events are not expected to offer much diversion from the steadily worsening crisis in the euro zone, which is driving demand for safe haven assets.

“It’s about capital preservation from an investor point of view,” said Richard batty, global investment strategist at Standard life Investments, which has $240.7 billion of assets under management.

“It’s a risk averse attitude that the market’s taking.”

Standard life’s global outlook for the second quarter remains moderately cautious, favoring U.S. equities and corporate debt due to signs of strength in that economy, and remaining neutral to light in riskier assets in Europe and asia where it sees problems affecting a number of economies.

These problems have become much more prominent in Europe over the past week where new data signaled a worsening in the outlook for many countries with the worries spreading to the euro area’s bigger and more stable economies. an ECb region-wide survey of bank lending published last week, the first to fully take into account the 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) it injected into the banking system, found that while banks were more willing to lend, the demand for credit from companies has fallen.

This weakness has been reflected in surveys of business sentiment across the euro area and in many corporate earnings reports, especially from banks, as Europe’s first quarter earnings season gets into full swing.

In the markets the main impact has been to drive down yields in German government bonds and U.S. Treasuries to around record lows, while the main index of European stocks, the FTSE Eurofirst .FTEU3 index, actually had a fairly flat week and the euro was little changed.

GROWTH CALL: The gloomier outlook has been encouraging calls from the region’s political leaders for a shift away from tough government austerity measures to more growthoriented strategies but is not expected to prompt any action from ECb policymakers on Thursday.

“The ECb is going to stick to its waitand-see stance, without any meaningful changes in rhetoric,” Unicredit economist Marco Valli said.

The market will, however, scrutinize the regular news conference after the meeting for signs the bank is preparing to ease policy in some form. a Reuters poll of 60 economists found three-quarters of them expect the ECb will restart its government bond-buying program at some point in the next three months because of the growing tensions in the euro zone bond market.

The political rhetoric on the need for more growth is also likely to increase over the coming week in the run up to the final round of the French presidential vote and the Greek general elections on Sunday, May 6. but this is likely to fall on deaf ears in the markets.

“For us there’s a lot of talk there, but we’d be surprised if anything concrete comes about,” said Standard life’s batty.

Jim Reid, credit strategist at Deutsche bank, said what was really needed is much better policy cohesion between euro zone governments and the ECb.

“There are signs that the stress in the market now will lead to a revisiting of the policy response and an acceptance the current mix is not great.”

Spain, the euro zone’s fourth largest economy and current focus of the debt crisis, will provide a real test of where investor sentiment stands when it sells 3- and 5-year bonds on Thursday.

The sale will be even more closely watched after the country suffered a surprise two-notch credit rating downgrade which pushed yields on its 10-year debt over the key six percent level on Friday.

The amount investors demand to hold Spain’s debt rather than safer German bonds has risen about a 120 basis points since Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced in early March the government was abandoning its deficitreduction targets for the year.

RECoVERY EYED outside the euro zone’s problems, growth is the biggest concern facing investors following a disappointing 2.2 percent rise in U.S. first quarter economic output.

The U.S. is due to report that non-farm payrolls in april grew by 175,000 on Friday, a rebound from the surprise rise of only 120,000 in March which did much to unsettle growth hopes across all the markets. before the jobs numbers, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) will issue an update on manufacturing activity for april on Tuesday.

The Chinese growth outlook also be further clarified with the release of the government’s manufacturing purchasing manager’s series on Tuesday and the non-manufacturing PMI on Thursday.

Emerging market equities have performed well so far this year with the MSCI emerging index .MSCIEF up over 11 percent for the year to date, but growing worries about the health of euro zone peripheral states have reversed some of these gains over the past six weeks.

china says Q2 trade growth to stabilize at ‘low level’ BEIJING REUTERS

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HINa’S trade growth in the second quarter should stabilise at a “low level”, the Commerce Ministry said on Friday in a regular spring assessment of business conditions that cautioned tough times ahead.

Without predicting when trade flows would recover, the ministry said the world’s secondbiggest economy still faced considerable headwinds and that price pressures were building despite slackening activity. but it noted that the Chinese economy, which grew at its slowest annual pace in nearly three years at 8.1 percent in the first quarter, was supported

by good fundamentals.

“There are some favorable factors to ensure steady growth in trade, but we should also note that the year of 2012 may be a quite challenging one for China’s trade,” the ministry said in its assessment, posted online.

“China’s external trade growth is likely to stabilize at a relatively low level in the second quarter.”

China has set a 10 percent growth rate for exports and imports in 2012, but both targets were missed in March, with imports expanding just 5.3 percent from a year earlier while exports grew 8.9 percent.

The ministry says it is confident of hitting its target.

Hurt by a recession in Europe and a patchy

economic recovery in the United States China’s two biggest trading partners -export sales growth has slumped to single-digit levels this year, a long way from growth of over 20 percent seen in 2010 and the first-half of 2011.

Worse, rising domestic labor costs and higher raw material prices are squeezing the competitiveness of Chinese exporters as well, the ministry said. a separate survey released by China’s statistics agency showed the 159-millionstrong migrant workforce saw an average salary increase of 21.2 percent in 2011 from a year earlier.

“China’s trade growth in 2012 will grow at a stable pace, which is expected to be lower than in 2011, and the

trade balance will be further improved,” the ministry said.

It noted that global oil prices could climb on the back of geopolitical tensions in Iran and Syria.

“Uncertainties hanging over Syria and the unfolding Iran nuclear crisis could increase the risk of higher oil prices,” it said. China posted a trade surplus of about $25 billion in the first quarter, accounting for just 1.4 percent of its gross domestic product, half last year’s proportion and well below the 10.1 percent seen in 2007. but the country’s overall trade sector dragged on the economy in the first quarter, with net exports subtracting 0.8 percentage points from Chinese economic growth.

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Geithner: US can withstand any Europe stresses WASHINGTON REUTERS

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S Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Friday that if Europe mismanages its crisis it could slow U.S. growth but said the U.S. financial system could handle any resulting pressures.

“The U.S. financial system is in a very strong position to withstand the foreseeable pressures we might face from Europe,” he said in an interview on american Public Media’s Marketplace program.

Geithner said that, on balance, Europe was making headway in efforts to deal with its sovereign debt crisis.

“I think they’ve made a lot of progress in the last few months in trying to bring back a measure of calm to their financial markets,” Geithner said.

Concern about spillover from Europe’s crisis led member countries of the International Monetary Fund to agree last weekend to pledge an additional $430 billion to strengthen its war chest in case other countries are adversely affected.

Geithner, who heads to beijing with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton next week for the latest round of Strategic and Economic Dialogue talks between the two countries, was cautious when asked to assess relations between the two countries. “better. better than it was,” he said, noting that a 13 percent real appreciation in the yuan’s value was “pretty good for us” since it reduces the competitive price advantage that Chinese-made goods hold over U.S. products.

Geithner and Clinton will discuss a full range of issues, potentially anything from cooperation on efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions to currency values in two days of talks May 3-4. He cited progress in several areas. “There’s better protection for intellectual property rights in , less piracy against U.S. firms, and China is gradually dismantling a range of the subsidies that their firms enjoy which gives them an unfair advantage,” he said. There was still work to do, Geithner added, but “the basic direction of reforms in China is fundamentally in our interest.”

OGDcL employees vow to close all the oil fields of company ISLAMABAD ONLINE

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oRE than four thousand contract employees of oil and Gas Development Company limited (oGDCl) have vowed to stops work, close all the oil fields of the company in case of government failure to address their demands till June 05. President of oil and Gas Development Company limited (oGDCl) oil field welfare committee Muhammad Younis during a press conference here on Saturday said that more than four thousand workers were hired through third party contract at Chanda, Mela and Nashpa oil fields of oGDCl. He said that these workers are working on contract basis from last eight years in the company. He said that workers are performing their duties at technical and non technical posts and their salaries are very low Muhammad Younis said that workers serving

as technical staff are taking 12,000 rupees monthly salary while non-technical and helpers are taking seven thousand rupees which is insufficient to run their house business. He said that on certain occasions, welfare committee met with Syed Khursheed shah and then Federal minister for Petroleum and natural resources Syed Naveed Qamar and informed them about the miseries of the employees but no action has been seen so far in this regard. He said that committee had approached the court as well but their issues were not addressed. President oGDCl oil fields welfare committee demanded President asif ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and federal minister for Petroleum and natural resources Dr asim Hussain to end the contract system from the department and steps should be taken for welfare and regularization of the employees. He also demanded to eliminate the contract system from the organization.

PASScO delay drive g

Wet spell postpones gunny bag distribution LAHORE STAFF REPORT

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oNTINUED wet spell has once again compelled the Pakistan agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PaSSCo) to delay distribution of gunny bags amongst the wheat growers under ‘wheat procurement drive 2012’ and now farmers will start getting gunny bags from May 01, 2012 from the designated procurement centres of the Corporation.

While Special assistant to the Chief Minister Punjab for Food Department Muhammad Mansha Ullah butt in a statement today has claimed that the department has initiated distribution of gunny bags in Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad. However, in the same statement he said that gunny bags distribution would start in all districts of the Punjab province from May 01, 2012.

butt also cited the continued rain spell as a reason in delayed harvesting of wheat and delayed initiation of procurement drive. He assured that the government would give due compensation to the growers of their hard work. He said that the food department had made all the arrangements to buy 3.5 million tons of wheat. all the arrangements for start of wheat procurement drive are in place. Sixty five per cent of the required gunny bags have already been reached the designated centers while rest is in the pipeline. Unfortunately, we have to take the decision of delaying the process once again to avoid high moisture content in wheat. Farmers might had brought wheat with high moisture content creating complications if the Corporation’s staff refuses to buy it, said a highly placed official.

To a question, he said that finances have also been

arranged for procurement of 1.5 million tons of wheat while assurances by the banks for finances for the rest of 0.5 million tons have also been received.

The Corporation would launch its procurement drive simultaneously in Punjab, Sindh and balochistan.

Farmers will be paid Rs 1,050 per 40 kilograms at the procurement centres besides Rs 7 per bag as delivery charges. all the zonal heads of the Corporation attended a daylong conference on ‘wheat procurement policy 2012’ on Friday to resolve any bottlenecks they are finding in smooth procurement drive. Now all the issues have been resolved and growers will face no hardships, assured a Corporation official.

The spokesman said that farmers can lodge their complaint if any against PaSSCo officials on 03004262758 or 042-99201461-62.