The Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Tuesday removed import duty on refined/raw sugar. The ECC, which met with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in the chair, allowed private sector to import sugar to bring down prices in domestic market, sources in Finance Ministry told Business Recorder. The Committee also directed Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to release sugar to the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) immediately at lower than market rate and later on import the commodity to keep the buffer stock up to 377,000 tons.
Sources said that the ECC was informed that sugar prices were touching Rs 30 per kg in some parts of the country, as it appears that there is no check on the prices. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz took serious note of this situation and approved the summary of Industries Ministry.
Sources said that TCP and USC have been advised to devise a reasonable price mechanism so that sugar should be provided to the public at cheaper rates than the private sector.
One of the officials, who attended the meeting, said that ECC did not discuss the soaring prices of petroleum products and gas as, according to him, the prices of both items had increased after approval of the Prime Minister.
No demurrage waiver on Afghan cars: The ECC did not approve a summary of the Commerce Ministry due to opposition from Central Board of Revenue (CBR) regarding waiving demurrage charges on 212 vehicles imported by Afghan nationals, which are standing at Karachi Port for the last ten months.
Though the Commerce Ministry argued that waiver of terminal charges would strengthen brotherly relations between the two countries, the CBR did not agree with the proposal, saying that such a decision would hurt revenue.
Sources said that the ECC approved GoP guarantee for 969 MW Neelam-Jhelum hydropower project, as a special case, on the recommendations of the Ministry of Water and Power. Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi informed the ECC that Neelam-Jhelum project was of vital importance as water rights of Neelam river were exclusively for Pakistan.
India has already started work on 330 MW Kishanganage project, which envisages diversion of water to Jhelum upstream of Neelam -Jhelum project site. Consequently, the power output of Pakistan's project may be reduced.
The Committee also approved allocation of gas from Umar-1 associated gas field and Ali-1 gas field (Mipur Khas block).
The Press Information Department also issued a press release which said that the ECC had directed banking sector to extend farm credit to the extent of Rs 49 billion during the first half of the current financial year, against the full-year target of Rs 85 billion. It is expected that the agricultural credit disbursements this year will reach almost Rs 100 billion, which was the target for the next financial year (2005-06).
The ECC asked the State Bank governor to further extend loaning facilities to farmers, both in qualitative and qualitative terms, aimed at increasing the agricultural production which in turn will generate immense economic activities leading to creation of jobs and reduction of poverty in the rural areas.
The SBP governor apprised the ECC of the steps, which the central bank along with the commercial banks, including the new domestic private commercial banks, such as Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd (ZTBL) and Punjab Commercial Co-operative Bank, intends to take for further streamlining the credit facilities to the farmers at their doorsteps.
The Committee also noted with satisfaction that domestic private banks had already surpassed their annual targets while the big five commercial banks have achieved 63 percent of their target.
It was also brought to the notice of the ECC that the commercial banks have increased their share to 58 percent of the total agricultural credit disbursements, while in 1999-2000, the commercial banks were providing only Rs 9 billion or 23 percent of the total disbursements to the agriculture sector.
The ECC was informed that the performance of commercial banks in recovery was also quite impressive, as they had already realised 83 percent of recoverable amounts from agriculture borrowers.
Comments
Comments are closed.