Sunday, September 06
It’s usually easy to know when a country has fallen to military dictatorship. Tanks on the streets, uniforms in gilded palaces, the political class interned en masse. Sometimes, however, the takeover is more subtle, more insidious. That is what has befallen Pakistan over the past few years, culminating in a constitutional amendment last week that gave its army chief, Asim Munir, additional powers and lifelong immunity from prosecution.The “establishment” — Pakistanis’ euphemism for their powerful military and the industries and organizations it controls — has held a large share of power since its first decade as an independent nation. But democratic politicians have usually been arrayed in opposition, displacing it when it stumbled, such as after the country lost its eastern ha
In September, GST rates were reduced on many commodities. The anti-profiteering rule in Section 171 mandates that any reduction in the rate of tax should be passed on to consumers by 'commensurate reduction in prices'. But this is not always the case as, paradoxically, reduced tax does not necessarily result in reduced prices.When GST on a final product - say, an air conditioner - falls, the buyer should get a lower price. The difficulty arises when the tax is reduced on inputs used in the manufacture of dutiable final products. For example, GST was reduced from 28% to 18% on cement, but it has a complex taxation structure. Accounting standards require that taxes paid on inputs do not form part of the final product's cost if these input taxes are entitled to be set off against the duty pay
JSW Energy has secured the approval of the creditors of Raigarh Champa Rail Infrastructure for its proposal to acquire the debt-laden entity currently under the insolvency process.JSW Energy acquired KSK Mahanadi Power Company Ltd (KMPCL), a 3,600 MW thermal power plant in Chhattisgarh, for Rs 16,084 crore through the insolvency process, in March this year.After the KMPCL acquisition, JSW Energy held significant indirect ownership in Raigarh Champa Rail Infrastructure Private Limited (RCRIPL), which is the sole provider of rail infrastructure for coal transportation services to KMPCL.In an exchange filing on Thursday, JSW Energy said, "We wish to inform that the resolution plan submitted by the company for RCRIPL under the corporate insolvency resolution process has been approved by the Co
President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that the long-awaited meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani would happen in Washington later this week, setting up an in-person clash between the political polar opposites who for months have antagonized each other from afar. The sit-down, which Trump said on social media would take place Friday in the Oval Office, could possibly represent a detente of sorts between the Republican president and Democratic rising star, as Trump has since Mamdani's win moved toward acceptance of Mamdani's central, winning campaign issue of affordability. Calling Mamdani by his full name - and putting the mayor-elect's middle name of Kwame in quotation marks - Trump posted Wednesday night that Mamdani had asked for the meeting, promising "Further deta
