Author: sureshzmc07

Anant Mukesh Ambani, Director of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Murray Auchincloss, CEO of bp, inaugurated the 500th Jio-bp pulse EV charging station, part of the joint venture between RIL and bp, at the Jio World Centre (JWC) in BKC, Mumbai, signifying the establishment of 5,000 Jio-bp charging points across India.

“The commissioning of the EV-charging station enables access for guests at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, Jio World Plaza and Jio World Convention Centre in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Mumbai, marking the installation of the 500th Jio-bp pulse charging point in India,” a company statement said.

Paving the way for EV charging infrastructure in India, Jio-bp pulse has set up 5,000 charging points through 500 stations. With 95% of its network consisting of fast-charging stations, Jio-bp leads providers in India, especially in the highly-rated 480 kW public charger segment.

Jio-bp has rapidly expanded its network, increasing from 1,300 to 5,000 stations in just a year. It aims to provide high-speed charging with an impressive uptime of 96%, positioning itself as India’s most dependable charging network.

Additionally, Jio-bp has pioneered the use of top-rated 480 kW chargers, supported by unique Customer Value Propositions (CVPs), which facilitate efficient and swift charging at locations such as malls, corporate parks, hotels, and rest stops. By alleviating range anxiety with its expanding infrastructure and minimising charging time through DC fast chargers, Jio-bp is enhancing the electric vehicle (EV) experience with its cutting-edge Jio-bp pulse charging app, thereby driving EV adoption in India.

“Jio-bp is playing a pioneering role in accelerating EV adoption in India. With the largest network share of fast-charging stations, fastest growth in EV-charging infrastructure, and highest reliability, Jio-bp is offering a well-packaged, digitised charging solution to millions of Indians,” said Anant Ambani at the launch event.

Through its investment in green energy, supported by Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited’s solar initiatives, Jio-bp is making significant strides towards promoting sustainable mobility in India.

“EV charging is one of bp’s key transition businesses in our journey to becoming an integrated energy company. We are focusing on scale, speed, and strategic locations to provide a seamless customer experience. By combining bp and RIL’s capabilities, we are delivering EV charging with convenience, creating a unique value proposition for customers,” remarked Murray Auchincloss.

With its continued growth in charging infrastructure, innovative customer offerings, and commitment to sustainability, Jio-bp is solidifying its role as the fastest-growing, most accessible, and most reliable EV charging partner in India.

The IMF has approved a USD 7 billion new bailout package for Pakistan, authorising the immediate release of the first loan tranche of less than USD 1.1 billion to reinforce the cash-strapped country’s efforts to address the ongoing economic crisis.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) board met on Wednesday in Washington to give a nod to the staff-level agreement with Pakistan after Islamabad promised to overhaul its agriculture income tax, transfer some fiscal responsibilities to provinces, and agree to limit subsidies. The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed the Executive Board of the IMF approved the 37-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) totalling USD 7 billion.

It is the 25th IMF programme that Pakistan has obtained since 1958 and the sixth EFF. Pakistan will pay around a 5 per cent interest rate on the IMF loan, The Express Tribune quoted the Ministry of Finance as saying in a statement given to the Senate Standing Committee on Economic Affairs.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday reiterated this would be Pakistan’s last IMF programme; a statement he made after the approval of the 24th programme in 2023 as well. Shehbaz, giving credit for the new bailout package to Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Chief of the Army Staff General Asim Munir and the finance team, noted the federal government cannot complete the 25th programme without the cooperation of all four provinces.

The Sindh government on July 30 ratified a memorandum of understanding for signing the National Fiscal Pact and the Balochistan government signed it on July 26 following the staff-level agreement between Pakistan and the IMF on July 12. The IMF board approved the programme without addressing one of the root causes of economic crunches — need to restructure the external and domestic debt that consumed 81 per cent of Pakistan’s tax revenues in the last fiscal year, the report said.

The new bailout package targets achieving macroeconomic stability by consolidating public finances, rebuilding the foreign exchange reserves, reducing fiscal risks from state-owned enterprises, and improving the business environment to encourage growth led by the private sector. To qualify for the programme, the government raised Rs 1.8 trillion in additional taxes from Rs 1.4 trillion earlier, increased electricity prices up to 51 per cent, and promised to bring transparency in the affairs of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, it said.

The government also took the most expensive loan in Pakistan’s history — USD 600 million — to win a board meeting date from the IMF. The power sector fiscal viability, privatisation of loss-making entities and enhancing tax revenues are part of the core conditions of the IMF programme.

Unlike in the past, when the provincial budgets were out of the purview of the IMF, the new programme is also expanded to the provincial budgets and their revenues. Nearly one dozen IMF conditions directly impact the provinces under the new programme, the report said. The federal and provincial governments will sign a new National Fiscal Pact by next Tuesday to transfer the responsibilities of health, education, social safety net and road infrastructure projects to provinces, according to the conditions agreed with the IMF.

All four provincial governments will align their agriculture income tax rates to the federal personal and corporate income tax rates by amending their laws by October 30. As a result, the agricultural income tax rate would increase from 12-15 per cent to 45 per cent in January next year.

All the provincial governments will refrain from giving further subsidies on electricity and gas and not establish any new Special Economic Zones or Export Processing Zones as per the IMF agreement. The federal government will not be entitled to have any new economic zones and end the tax incentives of the existing zones by 2035.

According to another condition, Pakistan needs to show a primary budget surplus of 4.2 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product during the three-year programme period. The primary budget surplus is calculated after excluding interest payments. A 4.2 per cent GDP deficit would significantly squeeze non-interest expenses and put an additional tax burden of 3 per cent on the existing taxpayers.

Under the IMF programme, a primary surplus equalling 1 per cent of GDP will have to be shown in this fiscal year and about 3.2 per cent over the next two years to put the debt-to-GDP ratio on a sustainable declining path. In case of tax shortfall, the government has committed to bringing a mini-budget to increase tax rates on imports, contractors, professional service providers as well as fertilizers. The FBR is facing the risk of over Rs 200 billion tax shortfall for the first quarter.

For this fiscal year, Pakistan will be bound to keep the spending on defence and subsidies at the previous fiscal year level in terms of the size of the economy. However, the design of the programme has not completely addressed the issue of debt unsustainability and is built around the strategy of rolling over the maturing external debt during the period.

Pakistan has committed to refrain from repaying the USD 12.7 billion debt to Saudi Arabia, China, the UAE, and Kuwait during the programme period. The IMF forced Pakistan to first bridge a USD 2 billion additional financing gap for qualifying the board approval. Pakistan had to take the most expensive commercial loan in its history at an 11 per cent interest rate from the Standard Chartered Bank to meet the financing gap.

The Asian Development Bank warned on Wednesday that the rising political and institutional tensions may make it difficult to implement the reforms that Pakistan has committed to deliver to the IMF. The ADB said these reforms were crucial to ensure that external lenders keep lending to Pakistan.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)

A Japanese warship cruised through the Taiwan Strait for the first time to assert its freedom of navigation, local media said Thursday, a week after a Chinese aircraft carrier sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan.

Japan’s top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi declined to comment on the reports at a regular briefing because they concern military operations. The United States and its allies are increasingly crossing the 180-kilometre (112-mile) Taiwan Strait to reinforce its status as an international waterway, angering China.

The Sazanami destroyer made the unprecedented passage on Wednesday, several Japanese media outlets said. Military vessels from New Zealand and Australia also sailed through the fiercely contested waterway on the same day, Wellington’s defence ministry said on Thursday.

A defence official told AFP that one of its ships made its first passage through the Taiwan Strait in seven years, alongside an Australian guided missile destroyer to assert the “right of freedom of navigation”. The official added the mission was not conducted with Japan.

Japanese media said the three nations planned to conduct military drills in the contested South China Sea. Last week, China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan for the first time, accompanied by two destroyers.

The ships entered Japan’s contiguous zone — an area up to 24 nautical miles from the country’s coast — Tokyo said, calling the incident “totally unacceptable”. China said it had complied with international law. It followed the first confirmed incursion into Japanese airspace by a Chinese surveillance aircraft in August.

The Yomiuri Shimbun daily cited unnamed government sources as saying Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had instructed Wednesday’s Taiwan Strait journey over concern that doing nothing following China’s intrusions could encourage Beijing to take more assertive actions.

– ‘Serious concern’ –

Beijing views Taiwan as a renegade province and claims jurisdiction over the body of water that separates the island from China. But the United States and many other countries argue their voyages are usual, citing freedom of navigation.

China this month accused Berlin of heightening security risks in the Taiwan Strait, a day after two German navy ships sailed through the waters. On Wednesday, China test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean in its first such exercise in decades.

Japan said it had not been given advance notice of the test, with Hayashi expressing “serious concern” about China’s military build-up in comments he reiterated on Thursday. “China’s military intrusion into our territorial airspace and other incidents have been happening one after another in a short period of time,” Hayashi said.

Japan will do its “utmost in patrolling and monitoring” the situation, he added. Taiwan’s defence ministry said Thursday that 43 Chinese military aircraft and eight naval vessels were detected around the democratic island within a 24-hour period.

Beijing has said it will never renounce the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in recent years upping the rhetoric of “unification” being “inevitable”.

In response, Taiwan has strengthened economic and political ties — most notably with the United States, its biggest weapons provider — while increasing its defence budget.

Bec Strating, professor of international relations at La Trobe University, said Japan’s reported Taiwan Strait transit “is part of a broader pattern of greater naval presence by countries in and beyond Asia that are concerned about China’s maritime assertions”.

“Japan in particular has been dealing with China’s ‘grey zone’ tactics in the East China Sea,” including an increasing number of coastguard vessels sailing close to disputed islands, she told AFP.

Grey-zone tactics are actions that serve to exhaust a country’s armed forces, military experts say.

Kishida’s ruling party will hold a leadership election on Friday that will be a de facto vote to decide Japan’s next prime minister, with candidates debating issues including regional security.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)