ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce has further amended a rebate scheme on local taxes and levies to address concerns of larger rice exporters and make it more competitive on the international market.

A notification released on Wednesday fixed specific rates under the Duty and Taxes Remission for Export (DLTL) scheme for various rice brands. The scheme will come into effect retrospectively from Jan 23.

The government has allocated approximately Rs15 billion for the subsidy scheme. According to the notification, the commerce ministry has removed the ceiling cap price of $1,275 per tonne FOB.

As a result of this decision, according to sources, rice exporters will receive 9pc of the FOB value of $750 or above. This will encourage over-invoicing by Basmati exporters with offices abroad in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the US, the EU, and the UK.

Govt removes $1,275 per tonne price cap, allocates Rs15bn subsidy to boost competitiveness

Contrary to this, Indian exporters are currently offering Basmati rice at prices below $300 per tonne, with a price range of $900 to $975 per tonne to foreign importers.

There are apprehensions that the DLTL incentive is being misused by Basmati exporters and that domestic prices have already inflated. “Our growers have already sold their Basmati paddy at a price range of Rs5,500 to Rs6,000 per 40 kg,” the sources further said.

According to the same sources, hoarders are demanding Rs6,400 per 40kg.

Based on domestic paddy prices and a 9pc discount to DLTL, sources estimate the net export price of Pakistani Basmati rice at $1,200 per tonne. “Who will buy from us if Indian exporters are already supplying Basmati at $900 per tonne?” according to sources.

It has been pointed out that almost all of the top 50 rice exporters have their entities at various destinations, including KSA, UAE, USA, Canada, Kenya, Rwanda and other African destinations. “Now they will re-route their exports of Basmati and coarse rice through their overseas entities at a higher invoiced value to grab the maximum of DLTL incentives”, the sources further claimed.

The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), in a letter dated Feb 16 to Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan, said the imposition of an export price cap could exclude a large number of genuine exporters from the DLTL facility and adversely affect competitiveness and foreign exchange earnings.

FPCCI President Atif Ikram Sheikh stated that the rice sector operates in a highly competitive international market with fluctuating prices, quality variations and destination-specific dynamics. He cautioned that a rigid cap does not reflect market realities and may disproportionately affect small and medium exporters.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2026

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KARACHI: Treasury bill cut-off yields rose for a second consecutive auction on Wednesday, lifting returns further into double digits and taking the 12-month paper above the policy rate of 10.5 per cent.

In the previous auction, held after the monetary policy statement on Jan 26, T-bill yields rose by up to 39 basis points, moving some tenors from single digits into double digits.

Market participants said the latest outcome further dampened expectations of a near-term policy rate cut and suggested the benchmark rate could remain unchanged for an extended period.

Data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed the largest increase was recorded on the 12-month tenor, where the cut-off yield rose by 20 basis points to 10.60pc.

Govt borrows Rs677bn; return on 12-month paper exceeds policy rate

In the Feb 6 auction, the 12-month yield had increased by 39 basis points, taking the cumulative rise over the two auctions to almost 60 basis points and placing the one-year paper above the policy rate.

By contrast, the one-month cut-off yield fell by four basis points to 10.15pc, while the three-month and six-month yields rose by nine and 12 basis points to 10.28pc and 10.44pc, respectively.

Total bids at the auction stood at Rs1.265 trillion. The government accepted Rs319.8 billion through auction and Rs357.5bn in non-competitive bids, taking total borrowing to Rs677.3bn.

Analysts said higher T-bill yields would add to the government’s debt-servicing burden. Int­erest payments in the current fiscal year are projected at around Rs8tr, the single largest component of federal expenditure.

Financial sector experts said the higher yields could appeal to foreign investors, who invested $176m in January, but noted that the overall situation remained weak as 68pc of investment had returned during the first seven months (July-January) of the ongoing fiscal year.

Some analysts had expected a policy rate cut of up to 100 basis points ahead of the previous auction, but the SBP left the rate unchanged. The two successive increases in T-bill cut-off yields have strengthened market expectations that the policy rate may remain unchanged through the current fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2026

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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Wednesday that 5G spectrum auction would be held on March 10 and no changes were likely to be made in the schedule, saying that the sale was likely to fetch between $300-$700 million.

The authority is offering 597 megahertz (MHz) in several bands in the upcoming auction and three existing telecom operators have been mandated to obtain a minimum of 100 MHz in the auction process.

“With the prescribed rate, even if 300 MHz is obtained by the telecommunication operators without any competitive bidding, the government will get $300 million,” PTA Director General Licensing retired brigadier Aamir Shahzad told a media briefing.

“And if all the 597 MHz is sold at auction at a slightly competitive rate, $700 million will be available for the government, but this scenario is less likely to happen,” he added.

Shahzad said that the auction would be conducted using a multi-round electronic clock auction format, with the main allocation stage starting on March 10. He said the 2600 MHz and 3500 MHz bands would be offered during the first round.

He added that after the auction process, the rollout of 5G services would take between three and six months as certain infrastructure was needed for the fresh spectrum.

Meanwhile, Chairman PTA Hafeezur Rehman said that the auction would lead to improved quality of service and data speed.

“Around 50 million new users have been added in the system during the last five years, but only 10MHz was increased in the 2021 spectrum auction,” PTA Chairman said.

“Improved data service and enhanced coverage will also increase average revenue per user (ARPU) for telecommunication operators,” he said.

The ARPU is a key performance indicator that measures the average revenue generated by a company from each consumer within a specific timeframe, monthly or annually.

“We started with $0.7 and now the ARPU has reached $1.3. Therefore, it is likely to increase as more data is consumed by the subscribers,” Rehman said.

“The authority expects mobile broadband speeds to improve by around 25 per cent following the auction,” he said.

He said that the government had offered many incentives to telecom companies in the new spectrum auction, but obligations to improve the quality of service as well as coverage area had been increased.

“This will help the country to embrace further upgradations like 6G and not like 5G, where we have been delayed,” the PTA Chairman said.

He added the government had also eliminated the right-of-way fee that used to be around Rs36,000 per kilometre annually; this, he said, would encourage fiberisation projects.

The chairman also said that telecom operators had already placed orders for 5G equipment, while local manufacturing of 5G-enabled smartphones had commenced, with 500,000 to 600,000 units produced so far.

He said the other measures being taken to facilitate the faster rollout of services after the auction were options for spectrum sharing, relaxation of certain regulatory terms and incentives for network expansion.

“Operators have been given one year to make the necessary capital investments without upfront spectrum payments, allowing them to focus on improving service quality,” Rehman added.

However, the operators will have to expand 5G coverage to additional cities apart from Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta, while fiber-to-the-site ratios will increase from 20 per cent to 35pc by 2035.

Besides, the minimum download speeds for 4G service have been increased from four megabytes per second (Mbps) to 20Mbps in 2026–27 and to 50Mbps by 2030–35.

For 5G, minimum download speeds will rise from 50Mbps initially to 100Mbps by 2030–35, with latency targets reduced to 35 milliseconds. Upload speeds are benchmarked at 20pc of download speeds across both technologies.

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