The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet Wednesday approved Rs. 57 billion advanced subsidy for payment of K-Electric arrears.
Federal Minister for Finance Dr Shamshad Akhtar presided over the meeting of the ECC. The committee considered a summary of the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) regarding the release of Rs. 57 billion advanced subsidy for payment of K-Electric arrears and approved the technical supplementary grant in order to meet the operational requirements of the power sector.
Another summary of the Power Division for settlement of payables to government-owned power plants (GPPs) at par with IPPs was approved and ECC directed to release Rs. 262.075 billion to public sector power plants through a technical supplementary grant. This matter will further be discussed in the next meeting.
The committee also agreed to initiate phase out of the Export Finance Scheme of the State Bank of Pakistan, a requirement of the IMF Standby Arrangement. To operationalize this requirement, ECC gave the approval to release Rs. 3.87 billion to EXIM bank for the current fiscal year.
While discussing the report on ECC’s decisions on PSM’s liabilities towards GoP as discussed on September 19, 2023, the finance minister directed the Ministry of Industries to carry out a diagnostic survey to determine why the liabilities of PSM persisted even though it had not been operational since 2015 and how PSM land had been allocated to housing companies and served other industries without due process. ECC showed its displeasure on the PSM board and recommended that the Industries Division may look into this issue for further necessary action.
The transfer of the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA) from the Science and Technology Division to the Power Division was approved and the committee also approved TSG amounting to Rs. 152.417 million for FY24 in favor of NEECA for this purpose.
A summary regarding the Profitable Support price for wheat crop 2023-24 submitted by NFS&R was also discussed. After detailed deliberations with all the provinces, ECC recommended the last year’s price i.e. Rs. 3,900 per 40 kg, given the substantial increase of 77 percent in support price in 2022/23. The committee endorsed that there shall be no subsidy on agriculture inputs which in any case is the responsibility of provinces. It also gave approval of the notification of minimum indicative prices of Tobacco Crop 2024 and revision of cess rates on tobacco for the year 2024-25.
An additional agenda item from the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication regarding the relending of GoP to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) was discussed and got approved by the ECC.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Planning Sami Saeed, the Minister for Privatization Fawad Husan Fawad, Minister for Industries and Commerce Gohar Ejaz, Minister for Power & Petroleum Muhammad Ali, Minister for Information Technology Umar Saif, Advisor to PM on Finance Dr Waqar Masood, Federal Secretaries, and other senior government officers of the relevant ministries.
