KARACHI: As elsewhere, the ''World Consumer Rights Day'' will also be observed in the metropolis today. To mark the occasion, candles would be lit in front of the Empress market in Saddar here on Monday evening under the auspices of the Consumers Federation. Meanwhile, Huma Bukhari, president of the Consumers Forum, said that the occasion would be utilised to foster awareness among the people regarding the consumers'' right. This year, the theme of the World Consumer Rights Day ''Our Money Our Rights'' is very strong as it shows that the consumer has a right to spend his money according to his own will. He has every right to get their desirable goods and services with his money. In Pakistan, the consumer is left at the mercy of shopkeepers and manufacturers. If some consumers demand something according to his right, he faces numerous hurdles. Many of the difficulties which consumers experience arise from the lack of understanding and knowledge of how to behave as consumers. The only practical solution to the problem is to educate consumers about their duties and rights. There is need to create awareness among consumers that they can fight for their rights.

WELLINGTON: Asian stocks are set for a cautious start on Monday after US equity markets closed flat on Friday on a mixed bag of economic data. Wall Street''s main indices were little changed on Friday, with the Dow edging up 0.1 percent while the SP 500 and the Nasdaq fractionally weaker. Weak consumer confidence data offset a rise in retail sales, giving investors little reason to push the market in any direction, analysts said. Asian stocks listed on Wall Street were virtually unchanged, while MSCI''s measure of Asia Pacific stocks excluding Japan gained 0.2 percent. British and European shares fared slightly better, closing up at least 0.2 percent, with the heavyweight sectors of miners and banks both gaining. Japan''s benchmark Nikkei is seen rising, with Nikkei futures traded in Chicago closing at 10,800, 120 points above the Osaka close. Exporters will be cheered by a yen that was close to three-week lows against the US dollar, on expectations that the Bank of Japan will further relax its already super-loose policy. Australian shares are seen opening flat, with share price index futures up 1 point to 4,820, a 1.9 point premium to the underlying SP/ASX 200 index close on Friday.

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will have an excess of powers, if Banking Companies Ordinance 1962 aimed at regulating the banking system, is passed afresh with new amendments, Geo News reported Sunday. Addressing a media briefing here, the representatives of the foreign investors in banking system said the amendments proposed in Banking Companies Ordinance 1962 will end the protection of constitutional rights relating investment, property, trade and business, which will entail the central bank limitless powers; but, for any appeal against this, no modus operandi has been framed. It should be mentioned that the central bank has been authorized to manipulate banks’ shareholdings, appoint administrators for unspecified time period and to cap it all, to take banks in its direct control. The foreign investors said the judicial powers regarding the merger of financial institutions and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan’s powers on partnership have been delegated to the central bank. The draft under discussion at the Senate enshrines the SBP’s right to change the Board of Directors of commercial banks, appoint administrators and transfer the officers. This will give rise to central bank’s interference in banks at extreme low level and will lead to paralyze their managements.

SINGAPORE: Construction workers from Bangladesh, hotel staff from the Philippines, waitresses from China, shipyard welders from Myanmar, technology professionals from India -- Singapore has them all. For years the rich but worker-starved city-state, built by mainly Chinese immigrants, had rolled out the welcome mat for foreigners, whose numbers rose drastically during the economic boom from 2004-2007. But with one in three of the five million people living on the tiny island now a foreigner and citizens complaining about competition for jobs, housing and medical care, the government is taking a fresh look at its open-door policy. With the grumbling getting louder and general elections expected to be called before they are due in 2012, the government has unveiled measures to reduce reliance on foreigners and assure citizens they remain the priority. "There are social and physical limits to how many more we can absorb," Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told parliament in February. He said the government will make it costlier for companies to hire foreigners by raising the levies they must pay for every non-Singaporean or non-resident they hire. The government also earmarked 5.5 billion Singapore dollars (3.9 billion US) over the next five years to upgrade Singaporean workers'' skills to boost their productivity, make them more competitive and raise incomes. It imposed measures to cool down rising home prices, also blamed on foreigners buying into the property market, and pledged it will further tighten the process of accepting permanent residents and new citizens. Of Singapore''s population of nearly five million last year, 533,200 were permanent residents and 1.25 million were foreigners on employment passes, along with their families, official statistics show. "I think it is shaping up to be one of the hottest issues in Singapore today," political commentator Seah Chiang Nee said. Economist Song Seng Wun of CIMB-GK Research said that apart from helping local companies rise up the value chain, the new measures will also address potential election issues. Singapore''s last elections, held in 2006, saw the ruling People''s Action Party returned to power for six years, continuing its uninterrupted rule over the island since 1959. "The government has to be seen doing something in areas that are potential flashpoints," Song said. Disenchantment over foreign workers gained momentum during a severe economic slump that began in the third quarter of 2008, when trade-reliant Singapore became the first Asian economy to slip into recession. Drastic job and salary cuts were implemented, affecting many white-collar workers. In coffee shops, Internet forums, letters to newspapers and sessions with members of parliament, citizens became more vocal about the rapidly growing numbers of foreigners in their ranks. The most common complaint is that Singaporeans are losing jobs to foreigners who are willing to accept much lower salaries. "Foreigners are a great nuisance. I seriously wonder if they are here to work or just snatch jobs from our locals," said one posting on the popular online forum. "The country is fast becoming an unfamiliar place to many Singaporeans. The sense of national pride is disappearing by the day," said a posting by Nur Muhammad on The Online Citizen. Seah, who runs a political website, said much of the resentment comes from Singaporeans who have to compete directly with foreign engineers, accountants, hotel managers and IT professionals. "Most Singaporeans do not feel angry against low-skilled foreign workers... It is more aimed at those who come in as white collar workers and get the jobs that Singaporeans can do," he said. Citizens have also complained about having to share space in crowded trains with a large number of foreigners, or compete with them for places in government schools and public housing. Foreign labourers are accused of loitering, spitting in public and leaving litter behind. Another sore point for locals is dealing with waitresses and sales people who can hardly understand English. Some employers have argued they do not hire Singaporeans for certain jobs because locals are choosy and often lack the natural social and communication skills in service professions like manning hotel front desks. In some ways, Singapore is a victim of its own success. A campaign in the 1970s for families to have only two children was so effective that the country is now well below the 60,000 babies needed per year just to naturally replace the resident population. Efforts to reverse the trend have failed as increasingly affluent couples marry at a later age and opt for just one child or none at all. Officials, economists and business executives admit that with Singaporeans procreating less, the country will need foreign workers in the long term, while making sure citizens'' interests are addressed. Singapore''s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, who advises the cabinet of his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said in January that "we''ve grown in the last five years by just importing labour." "Now, the people feel uncomfortable, there are too many foreigners," Lee said. "The answer is simple: We check the flow of foreigners, raise your productivity, do the job better, so that instead of two workers, eventually you''ll do it with one worker, like the Japanese do."

BEIJING: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday rejected foreign pressure on Beijing to allow its currency, the yuan, to appreciate, warning other countries to stop "finger-pointing". The United States and the European Union, key trade partners for China, say the Communist leadership has intentionally kept the currency low to boost its exports, vital to the country''s emergence from the global economic crisis. US President Barack Obama called on Beijing last week to adopt a "market-oriented" exchange rate policy, upping the pressure on China to allow the yuan -- effectively pegged to the dollar since mid-2008 -- to appreciate. Wen hit back, rejecting all outside interference in China''s exchange rate policy decisions and saying a stable yuan had helped not just China, but also the world, emerge from the worldwide slowdown. "We are opposed to the practice of engaging in mutual finger-pointing among countries or taking strong measures to force other countries to appreciate their currencies," Wen told a press conference. "This kind of practice is not in the interest of the reform of the renminbi (yuan) exchange rate regime," he said at the end of China''s annual session of parliament. The premier said China had made "strong efforts" since the outbreak of the international financial crisis to keep the yuan at a "stable level". The value of the yuan has become a major sticking point in relations between China and the United States, which are badly strained over a number of other issues including a spate of trade disputes, Tibet, Taiwan and Internet freedom. Obama on Thursday had called on China to adopt a "market-oriented" exchange rate policy, which he said would make an "essential contribution" to rebalancing the world economy after the global financial crisis. But Beijing had quickly rejected those remarks on Friday. "We don''t agree with politicizing the renminbi exchange rate issue," People''s Bank of China vice governor Su Ning said, according to Dow Jones Newswires. "We also don''t agree with a country taking its own problems and having another country solve them," Su said. "We believe the yuan exchange rate issue will not help shrink or increase our trade surpluses and deficits." Many US lawmakers are pressing the Treasury Department to label China a currency "manipulator" in a forthcoming semi-annual report.

LAHORE: The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has announced a countrywide strike on March 18 to protest a reduction in the yarn export quota from 50,000 to 35,000 tons per month. The next course of action will be announced after the strike, Chairman APTMA Punjab Gohar Ejaz and senior members said at a press conference at APTMA House here on Saturday. Gohar Ejaz said the reduction was contrary to the assurance extended by members of the Federal Cabinet to spinners at their meeting early January in the presence of the President of Pakistan. APTMA member mills were given an understanding that the matter would not remain unsettled up to June 2010, he said, adding, all members of the association would join the strike. "The only way out of the quagmire was the restoration of Free Trade Mechanism and an end to all restrictions on the export of yarn as per the vision of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, which she announced in 1994 as Prime Minister of Pakistan", he said. While criticising the ministry, he said steps like imposition of quota and later a reduction in it could result in permanent closure of spinning units because of the absence of yarn exports orders from the outside world. This will result in loss of foreign exchange earnings by Pakistan, he added. He said spinning industry exports would decline if no immediate revision on quota imposition was made. The chairman viewed," acute financial hardship is resulting into the closure of business operations besides serious consequences of government meddling in the free market mechanism were burdening the country with incapacity to honour its export commitments". He said that the value added sector, the most inefficient, was already the beneficiary of a 20% yarn price decrease. It was reasoned that any support desired to be extended to the garment sector should not be done as a cross subsidy realized from the spinning sector, rather the government should support them directly from its own resources, he added. "Already, the value-added sector was pampered enough by different supports like duty drawbacks, export re-finance etc. It should learn to stand without crutches," Gohar Ejaz said. He said there was a unanimous opinion that shortages of cotton and simultaneous yarn export embargo would not only adversely affect the spinning industry but textile exports all across the value chain would also be seriously threatened.

KARACHI: The Department of Excise Taxation Sindh has made a revenue collection of Rs10.59 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal, missing the target by Rs2.63 billion. According to figures released by the Excise Department, Rs6.91 billion collected under the head of Infrastructure Cess constituted a major share of the total collections and it is Rs2.14 billion less than the target. The officials of ET Department told Geo News that the decrease in Infrastructure Cess is due to the decline in imports. The Department collected Rs178 million under Motor Vehicle Tax and Rs150 million as Excise Enactment.

KARACHI: Oil and gas projects of high importance are pending in the courts, OGDCL sources told Geo News. According to the source projects of 6000 barrels of oil per day (Rs 35.28 million), 300 mmcf gas per day (Rs 66900) and 500 metric tones of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Rs 22.5 million) were pending in the courts. These cases were related to oil and gas exploration.

KARACHI: Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) witnessed strong bull-run throughout the week pushing the benchmark KSE-100 Index by 326 points to 10026, highest level since August 2008. The Index started its upward march from the beginning of the week and kept gaining momentum. On Friday, the last trading day of the week, the Index finally made it to over 10,000 points psychological barrier, for the first time in about 19 months. Local and foreign investors actively participated in the share market by taking fresh positions particularly in energy, banking and cement sectors. The average market turnover was recorded at 180 million shares this week, 42 per cent up compared to the previous week. PTCL, Lotte Pakistan and NBP remained on top of the list of volume leaders. On the other hand, KSE-30 Index surged by 387 points to close at 10448.

KARACHI: Towels Manufacturers’ Association said the exporters were not consulted over Value Added Tax, Geo News reported Saturday. According to a statement issued here from the Association, the production cost will soar up as a result of promulgation of the VAT. The statement said Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should hold negotiations with the Association before implementing the VAT, so that reservations over the Tax could be dispelled away and any potential harm to the national exports could be spared.