
Publication
Essential Corporate News – Week ending 23 May 2025
The Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Annotation) Regulations 2025 and an accompanying Explanatory Memorandum were published on 14 May 2025.
Global | Publication | April 2025
One significant barrier to developing Pakistan's minerals sector is the lack of a unified minerals policy. The sector is governed by six regulatory frameworks, eight legislative instruments, and 36 sets of rules, making investment assessment challenging, especially for international investors.
To address this, federal and provincial mining departments collaborated with international advisers to prepare a national harmonised framework. This framework aims to be a one-stop shop for all investment-related matters in Pakistan's minerals sector. It is based on benchmarking against fiscal offerings and regulatory frameworks from jurisdictions including:
The framework, in the form of the Mines and Minerals Act 2025, is now being considered at the provincial legislative level.
In terms of the legal and regulatory regime in the framework, the following have been proposed:
Mineral titles granted under the old regime will remain protected. However, titleholders will be required to achieve compliance with the new regime within 18 months of it coming into force.
In terms of the fiscal regime, Pakistan’s government has acknowledged that adequate incentivisation is necessary to attract international investment.
The benchmarking exercise revealed that the government's share of revenue in Pakistan is approximately 76 percent, higher than the average of 68 percent, such percentage being the average for the governments in the six countries against which the benchmarking exercise was done.
The IRR for companies in Pakistan is 14.5 percent, lower than the average of 17.5 percent, such percentage being the average IRR for companies in the six countries against which the benchmarking exercise was done.
Consequently, Pakistan’s government is aiming through incentives similar to those of special economic zones and export processing zones to achieve a company IRR of around 18 percent to give Pakistan’s minerals sector a competitive edge.
Furthermore, in respect of the minerals-related royalties being collected at a provincial level, based on a benchmarking exercise of the 90 minerals found in Pakistan, harmonised royalties have been suggested to the provincial governments. However, the level of royalties is determined by the provinces and it is ultimately up to them to determine if they would like to adopt this approach.
Find out more about out Pakistan practice.
Disclaimer: This article is based on information from the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2025, held on 8 and 9 April in Islamabad. Norton Rose Fulbright operates a Pakistan desk internationally. Our lawyers have significant experience in transactional and contentious matters relating to Pakistan, but we do not advise on Pakistani law.
Norton Rose Fulbright has been ranked a Band 1 global mining practice, and we advise all major mining companies globally.
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The Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Annotation) Regulations 2025 and an accompanying Explanatory Memorandum were published on 14 May 2025.
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