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Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Lucky draw fraud: Bengaluru wins Rs 1.5 lakh refund from travel agency
Bengaluru: What began as a lucky draw entry at a mall in Yelahanka turned into an expensive ordeal for Hafeez Pasha. Lured with promises of silver coins, movie tickets, and a free travel package, Pasha visited the office of Fala Holidays — only to be pressured into paying for an expensive holiday membership he never wanted. The Bangalore Urban district consumer disputes redressal commission has now found the company guilty of unfair trade practices and ordered a refund. It all started a year back when Pasha, a 30-year-old resident from Yelahanka, visited RMZ Galleria Mall on Oct 14, 2023, where an employee of Fala Holiday Packages, a travel agency with its head office in KR Pura, asked him to fill out a form for a lucky dip. He did so casually in the morning. By evening, he got a call from Tasmiya, an executive, claiming he'd won the draw — free movie tickets, a silver coin, and a travel package. To collect the gifts, she asked him to visit their office in Yelahanka New Town. Pasha and his wife walked in expecting freebies but were instead pitched expensive travel memberships, ranging from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. Despite saying he couldn't afford it, he said the staff, especially one Javid, pressured him to sign up for a Rs 1.5 lakh package that promised 21 days of holiday stays and 10 day-out trips. He paid the amount via credit card the same day, along with Rs 3,000 as an admin fee. A welcome mail followed, along with a membership card. Soon, the agency began pushing for costly upgrades. When Pasha requested a trip to the Andamans a month later, the agency declined without giving a clear reason. Multiple follow-ups went unanswered. Feeling cheated, Pasha alleged the agency used similar tactics on others and pointed out several pending cases against it in Bengaluru courts. Meanwhile, he continued to pay EMIs and interest on the credit card payment. A legal notice sent in Sept 2024 was ignored. Fed up with empty responses, he filed a consumer complaint on Nov 13, 2024, alleging deficiency in service. When the case reached the consumer commission, the agency failed to appear despite notice and was placed as ex-parte. After going through all documents (payment receipts, membership letter), the commission observed deficiency in service and unfair trade practices by the travel agency. A legal notice sent by the complainant was ignored by the travel agency, further adding to the agency's lapses. The commission said, "It is evident that the agency misled the public with attractive offers at malls, then forced them into unwanted memberships and further, they did not honour promised services, which makes Pasha rightfully entitled to a refund." On March 29, 2025, it ordered Fala Holiday Packages to refund Rs 1.5 lakh, which includes Rs 3,000 of admin fee at an interest of 10% from the day payment was made. It also asked to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation, Rs 10,000 punitive damages to the consumer welfare fund, and Rs 10,000 as litigation costs. Follow more information on Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad here . Get real-time live updates on rescue operations and check full list of passengers onboard AI 171 .
Business Recorder
28-04-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Taking stock of economic situation
EDITORIAL: A well-respected former Finance Minister and academician Dr Hafeez Pasha stated on AAJ Television that the historical rise in remittance inflows in the current fiscal year can be sourced to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) purchasing dollars from the market that originated from hundi/hawala (unofficial and illegal inflows) to shore up foreign exchange reserves – a policy that he pointed out was not sustainable. This brings into question SBP Governor Jameel Ahmed's claim made on 13 April 2025 during his address to Stock Exchange market players that remittances stood at 4.1 billion dollars in March 2025, a rise of 37 percent year-on-year compared to 2.95 billion dollars in March 2024 – a rise that he attributed to seasonal factors, improved formal banking channels, the onset of Ramazan as well as policies encouraging remittances through formal channels. Ahmed maintained that the rise in remittances would ensure that the current account remains in surplus, adding for good measure that this is the best external account performance in the last two decades. In response to the Governor's assertion Dr Pasha pointed out that the balance of payment consists of two accounts — current account (which includes trade and remittance inflows) and the financial account which is performing extremely poorly as the country is witnessing a negative outflow notwithstanding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme as well as rollovers of 16 billion dollars by the three friendly countries – Saudi Arabia, China and the UAE. He added that the country had budgeted around 10 billion dollars of new loans out of which only around 5 billion dollars have materialised so far, which explains reserves of 10.205 billion dollars on 18 April 2025 with rollovers already secured of 12 billion dollars with the remaining four billion dollars expected to be secured for another year as and when they mature. The Governor projected reserves of 14 billion dollars by end June this year, which is 2 billion dollars less than the envisaged rollovers. Business Recorder has invariably maintained that remittance inflows are generally not responsive to politics as the decision is taken by the remitters keeping in mind their family's economic needs (which rise during Ramazan and during periods of inflation) but with a worldwide recession feared, fuelled by the Trump administration's tariffs, employment opportunities abroad may be seen as not permanent. Dr Pasha also challenged the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) accuracy in determining the rate of inflation by pointing out that the Bureau assumed that the price of fuel had declined, which was the case in its international price, but failed to take account of the fact that the government decided not to pass it on to the consumers by raising the petroleum levy to first divert extra collections towards reducing the electricity tariffs and more recently to divert it to Balochistan's development by constructing a road. These obvious challenges to data integrity not only disable the government from taking appropriate and timely measures to deal with the situation but also account for the IMF's statement that there are weaknesses in the National Accounts and Government Finance Statistics (GFS), which explains why the 'authorities are prioritising addressing these weaknesses, supported by Fund Technical Assistance on the GFS and a new Purchasing Power Index.' Dr Pasha also recommended that exporters must continue to be given incentives to ensure that the country's exports rise. The IMF's ongoing programme argues that subsidies have undermined the development of a dynamic and outward-oriented economy and that 'despite all this support the business sector has failed to become an engine of growth and the incentives eventually weakened competition and trapped resources in chronically inefficient industries.' One would be hard-pressed not to agree with this statement, as decades of incentives have yet to produce a viable industrial sector in this country. And as per the Fund, the country has struggled to develop more sophisticated export goods, and the share of knowledge intensive exports remains low. Dr Pasha's support for the farmers necessitated by the government refusing to procure wheat as in the past (that led to the farmers dumping on the market at low rates), another IMF condition, is not tenable because this would imply that next year there would be less sowing of wheat with a shortfall. That maybe true, but one has to acknowledge the veracity of the Fund's analysis, notably that 'government interventions in agricultural commodities have created distortions inhibiting the sector's productivity and harming Pakistan's medium term potential.' The obvious solution to Dr Pasha's concerns with respect to exports and agriculture output would have been for the government to negotiate phased reforms with the Fund. However, that option is no longer available based on the fragile economy and the persistent failure of subsequent administrations, including the incumbent, to delay or reverse reforms pledged under the previous over twenty Fund programmes. One would hope that to increase leverage with the IMF the government seeks to at worst keep the current expenditure at the same level as last year (budgeted at 17.02 trillion rupees) and at best to reduce it by at least 2 trillion rupees through voluntary sacrifice by the elite recipients that would provide a breathing space to the general public in terms of a phased approach to harsh upfront IMF conditions. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Business Recorder
28-04-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Rupee-dollar parity: Procuring dollars from market not a sustainable policy: Pasha
ISLAMABAD: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) procured dollars from the market, originated from hawala hundi, to manage the rupee dollar parity and shore up foreign exchange reserves, which is not a sustainable policy. This was stated by Dr Hafeez Pasha, former finance minister, while speaking at Aaj TV's programme 'Paisa Bolta Hai with Anjum Ibrahim'. Dr Pasha also stated that with negative growth in the large scale manufacturing (LSM) sector, besides decline in major agriculture crops including 28 percent in cotton production, the country will hardly achieve 2 percent Gross Domestic Production (GDP) growth rate against the budgeted target of 3.5 percent set for the current fiscal year. Fitch forecasts Pakistan rupee at 285 against US dollar by June, 295 by FY26 end He said that procuring dollars from the market to keep the rupee dollar parity between 278 and 280 was not a sustainable policy because exporters need incentives. And argued that the government agreed with International Monetary Fund (IMF), under which exporters would be liable to pay full tax of 29 percent, instead of one percent of their total export income in the past. He lamented that neither tax break nor incentives are being given to exporters, in contrast to other regional competitors including India and Bangladesh, who incentivize their exporters. If government is not giving relief in taxes, at least it should keep the market based exchange rate, he maintained and noted that according to SBP data Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) exceeded Rs100, indicating that local currency is overvalued. He said GDP growth is the important indicator of economy which was hardly one percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. The country did not achieve on average 3 percent GDP growth during the last five years and registered the lowest rate in the country' s history, said Dr. Pasha. He further said that with 2.5 percent growth in population, per capita income has declined and around 44 percent population has been pushed below the poverty line. He further said that unemployment rate was 6-6.5 percent about 3-4 years back as per the labour survey but is at 22 percent today – highest in the country' history. The number of idle young population has reached 20 million which is a matter of great concern. He said that significant decline was recorded in inflation and remained below one percent in March. Core inflation which reflects clearer picture of demand and supply is still in the range of 6-8 percent. Difference in core inflation and overall consumer price index (CPI) is on account of the prices of two things — food items and fuel cost. Among the food items, a significant decline of 34 percent was observed in wheat and flour prices. This decline was due to suspending the procurement process and support prices by the government on IMF pressure, forcing farmers to dump it however this would lead to lower sowing of the crop next year with the distinct possibility of a shortfall. He said that surprisingly the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) stated that there was a 15 percent decrease recorded in fuel prices, even though the government kept prices stable to first pass onto electricity consumers and during the current fifteen days for Balochistan development adding that PBS data regarding inflation is highly questionable. He said that current account improved due to remittances, but goods and services trade deficit widened. There are two accounts in balance of payment - current and financial. Financial account is not in good state and is negative as foreign inflows are less than outflow for debt repayment, he added. 'By the end of the day even when current account is positive, overall balance of payment would not witness significant improvement compared to last year rather it would be worse', said Dr. Pasha. He argued that stabilization in economy is at a very high cost on account of loss to farmers and massive decline in investment which is the lowest in the last 25 years. Talking about foreign inflows, Dr. Pasha said that according Economic Affairs Division (EAD) estimates, the country was expecting to receive around $19.5 billion in the current fiscal year from different sources including $9 billion rollovers from China and Saudi Arabia. New inflow was estimated to be $10 billion in the current fiscal year, but the country hardly received $5 billion in the first nine months and was less than the amount, the country repaid. He said that according to SBP data, the foreign inflow is negative which is a matter of great concern as reserves have come down to less than $10.5 billion- indicating that the economy is still fragile and there is no reason to be over confident. Unless exports improve, the country would remain in the shadow of vulnerability, said Dr. Pasha, adding that trade deficit widened which is a long term indicator of where Pakistan stands. Talking about global tariff war, he said that USA was the only country where Pakistan has significant surplus. Pakistan has wide deficit with China of around $12-$13 billion. The trade war would have ramifications for Pakistan, he added. He said that direct and portfolio foreign investment was around $1.4 billion in the first 9 months of the current fiscal year which is the same level as in the previous year - $10-$15 billion investment was expected after the establishment of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), but it has yet materialize. Talking about the upgradation by rating agencies, he said that Pakistan had a score of only 18 in 100 and the country is still very far from the investment grade. He further said that government agreed with IMF to complete privatization process of PIA along with two DISCOs, but this has not yet been accomplished. This time the government may offer some better terms and incentives including procuring new aircrafts with sale tax exemption to make PIA privatization a success. Talking about the IMF review, he said that economic indicators would be considered till end June for the review and some indicators have already gone into negative. Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) shortfall was recorded at over Rs 700 billion in the first nine months of the year and is expected to reach Rs 1000 billion by end June and would not meet the target set for the current fiscal year. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
