Tag: SME

  • Daraz Group to reduce 11% workforce in response to challenging market conditions

    Daraz Group to reduce 11% workforce in response to challenging market conditions

    Daraz Group, an e-commerce subsidiary of Alibaba Group, will be reducing its workforce by 11 per cent in response to the challenging market conditions.

    The CEO, Bjarke Mikkelsen, noted the adverse impact of a war in Europe, significant supply chain disruptions, rising inflation, heightened taxes, and the elimination of crucial government subsidies on the company’s operations, which are in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.

    Daraz, which was founded in Pakistan in 2012 and acquired by Alibaba in 2018, is the largest e-commerce platform in Pakistan and serves over 100,000 SMEs in the country.

    According to Ehsan Saya, Managing Director of Daraz in the country, Pakistan remains the company’s largest market with the largest number of employees across its markets.

    He adds, “almost one-third of the staff in Pakistan is from regional teams which work with teams in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Singapore, and China.”

    Ehsan Saya confirmed to Reuters that the 11 per cent reduction in the workforce of Daraz Group will also result in an equivalent cut in its workforce in Pakistan. The group did not provide further details regarding the specific number of employees affected and further details on the restructuring.

    In a letter, CEO Bjarke Mikkelsen stated that Daraz has been able to grow its active shopper base from three million in 2018 to over 15 million currently, with an average order growth of nearly 100 per cent until last year. The company reported having access to 500 million customers in 2021 and a workforce of 10,000 employees. In the past two years, Daraz has invested $100 million in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

  • Govt to impose extra Rs900 billion taxes: report

    Govt to impose extra Rs900 billion taxes: report

    Pakistan’s former finance minister Dr Hafeez Pasha has said that under an ongoing deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government will impose taxes worth Rs900 billion in the upcoming budget, The Express Tribune reported.

    “The government has assured the IMF that it will impose Rs700 billion in additional taxes in the first year, Rs900 billion in the second year and Rs1,200 billion in the third year. We don’t have an option but to renegotiate with the IMF since our team was not able to prepare things properly,” Pasha said.

    “It is high time to bring radical tax reforms through tough decisions in the upcoming budget and those who can bear taxes should now take the burden since Pakistan has to pay Rs2 trillion in debt servicing this year; this amount will further increase to Rs3 trillion next year,”

    Economist Dr Qais Aslam said that Pakistan could not enter the 21st century “while having a mindset and policies of the 19th century”. “We have to uplift our institutions with a clear message to our bureaucracy that things will no longer materialise with their mindset.”

    He pointed out that the small-scale industry accounted for only 1% of Pakistan’s economy whereas in the modern world it was considered the backbone of any country. “We have to fix these issues, or else it will be impossible to give employment to the people.”

    “The country has lost one million jobs in the past one year and during the same period about two million youngsters have qualified for jobs… we have to create employment opportunities for them,” he said.