Business

With 3,300 dead and 99,000 infected according to the latest reports, the world has been sent scrambling to adopt preventive measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. Educational institutes have been shut down, flights delayed, sports events called off, and other public spaces cordoned all over the world following the outbreak. In pursuance of one such measure, the Saudi Arabian government was forced to empty the most revered site in the Muslim world, the Holy Kaaba. Although upper floors of the Masjid Al-Haram remained opened for pilgrims to perform Tawaf, images of Saudi health officials sterilizing the sealed ground floor, the Mataf, were widely televised. Last week, the Saudi Arabian government banned the entry of all foreign Muslims intending to perform Umrah as a preventive measure. It had also ordered Saudi Airlines to cancel any booked or reserved tickets and compensate all those affected by the move. So far, Saudi Arabia has reported 5 cases of Coronavirus. ALSO READ Sa..

In a bid to remind people to pay taxes, the excise department has contracted the services of mobile phone companies to send text reminders to car owners (defaulters) of token tax. In the first stage, these messages will be sent to 100,000 vehicle owners and the defaulters won’t be fined till the end of this month. The E&T department has also sent letters for tax collection on 32,000 cars registered by the government, semi-government departments, as well as private companies. In a bid to collect tax, these departments and firms have been visited by Excise officials. Punjab police are the biggest defaulters when it comes to token tax in government departments with 1,768 vehicles, followed by Rescue 1122 with 357 vehicles. As mentioned before, the E&T department has started a huge operation against token tax defaulters with officers visiting various departments. For more accurate information, data on registered cars has been gathered, from which those 32,000 vehicles were listed. The ..