ECC to finalise measures on September 11

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has convened a meeting of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on September 11 to finalise measures to control core food inflation, after the Supreme Court of Pakistan directed the government to submit a comprehensive strategy in this regard within two weeks, official sources told Business Recorder here on Friday.
Another important issue which will be tabled before the ECC for reconsideration will be the 'Upstream Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Policy 2007' as some stakeholders had raised serious concerns over the ECC decision taken on July 19, sources said.
They said that a ministerial committee on core food inflation constituted by the ECC in its meeting on July 19 under the chairmanship of Minister for Industries and Production Jahangir Khan Tareen had discussed causes of price hike of essential food items, especially wheat, sugar and pulses, in spite of good crops.
The committee held three meetings earlier at government level and later heard the flour and sugar millers before finalising its recommendations for the Prime Minister.
The committee had recommended short- and long-term economic and administrative measures to ensure adequate supply of essential items for meeting consumption requirements and price stability.
The committee had recommended that wheat price should be fixed at Rs 470 per 40 kg, which was later revised to Rs 465-470 per 40 kg, as proposed by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal).
The committee had also recommended that the federal government must be taken on board prior to fixation of sugarcane price, and this process should be completed before September 15 every year.
UPSTREAM PETROLEUM (EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION) POLICY 2007 Sources said that the ECC in its meeting had cleared the proposed 'Upstream Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Policy 2007' and incorporated some of its recommendations, but there was still a dispute among the stakeholders, and to resolve confronting issues the proposal was being submitted to the ECC.
They said that the proposed policy had been widely criticised in the ECC meeting on July 19 and some of the participants were of the view that it could not articulate the tangible targets, including investment targets. Petroleum Ministry, however, was of the view that these targets would be developed once the policy was successfully marketed, sources added.
The ECC had agreed that performance should be the main criterion, and transparent mechanism be developed to deal with the cases of roll-out. It had also been decided that investor companies would be allowed to sell their gas to SSGC and SNGPL after establishment of production test at 15 percent discount. For gas supply beyond the field gate, the ECC had decided that tariff would be determined by the regulator on rate of return on equity basis of 12 percent with the capital cost being amortised over a minimum period of 15 years.