Habib Bank (HBL) earned a profit of Rs16.9 billion in the first six months of 2015, up 24.9% from the same period of last year.
According to the bank’s unconsolidated financial accounts released on Friday, HBL reported earnings of Rs7.4 billion in the second quarter (Apr-Jun) of 2015, which translates into a year-on-year decline of 7.3%.
The decrease in earnings in annual terms is reflective of the higher effective tax rate in Apr-Jun, said Topline Securities in a research note. The federal government changed tax rates on banks and imposed a one-time ‘super tax’ of 4%. It also notified a uniform tax rate of 35% on all sources of banks’ income, such as dividends and capital gains. According to Topline Securities, the effective tax rate in the second quarter of 2015 for HBL was 55% as opposed to 34% recorded in the same quarter of 2014.
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