Passenger train fares jacked up by 2%
An undated office memorandum seen by The Express Tribune directed the director IT to ensure the announcement of the new fares on the PR website.
The railways has also increased the rate of its freight trains transporting coal by 3% and the trains transporting rock phosphates and fertilizers by 2%. These hikes will apply from July 21.
The government on Tuesday raised the prices of petroleum products by up to Rs11 per litre for the second half of July in a regressive step that is likely to exacerbate the economic hardships of people.
According to a notification issued by the Finance Division on July 15, petrol price went up by Rs5.36 - from Rs266.79 to Rs272.15 per litre, while the price of the HSD rose by Rs11.37 per litre - from Rs272.98 to Rs284.35 for the July 16-31 period.
This hike in the HSD price increased the cost of the PR operation by Rs4 million [39,86,500] per day and around R199 million [119,500,000] per month. On an average, the PR consumes around 350,000 litres of HSD on a daily basis.
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ADB assesses feasibility of financing ML-1 project
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These remittances are sent by the tribe members working in Europe, Canada, and the United States, he added. "Our family does not have any criminal record, and we are traders doing business in black tea, tyres, and batteries," said Ahmad Shah. "My children are born in Pakistan and they do not want to go back to Afghanistan," said Shah, who is worried about selling off his benami assets at throwaway prices if the government finally decides to repatriate all Afghan refugees. "We are traders because we do not have permanent residence status and cannot legally invest in Pakistan," said Mohammad Bakhtiar, another member from the Dostokhail tribe. However, for Pakistani authorities, $51 million in remittances is not much compared to the cost that they believe the Pakistani economy was paying due to the presence of Afghan refugees. The cost is in the shape of the role of Afghan refugees in illegal trade of currency and smuggling of goods under the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement. 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