The Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Tuesday approved fixing CNG price on six monthly basis taking into account gas price and the cost of electricity. Sources said that the ECC meeting, which was presided over by the Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, also decided to disconnect CNG stations' gas supply if they exceeded their approved gas loads.
"The Ministry of Petroleum would ensure through gas utility companies that no CNG station exceeds its approved load at any time to avoid burden on the gas supply system. In case of violation of approved gas load, gas supply to CNG station would be disconnected immediately by the company concerned," the meeting approved. The recommendations were prepared and submitted to the ECC by a sub-committee headed by Minister for Law and Justice Farooq H Naek after consultation with all stakeholders.
The sub-committee also proposed to take into consideration the following factors: (i) operating expenses of CNG station owners; (ii) profit margin for CNG station owners equal to the margin in one liter petrol determined by the government from time to time; (iv) Gas Infrastructure Development Cess as notified by the Ministry of Petroleum; (v) sale tax applicable under law and maximum CNG sale price for the consumers.
The sub-committee formulated an interim report on one component of policy guidelines while report on other components will be submitted before the ECC in the next meeting. The ECC also approved a summary of the Ministry of Railways for waiving lending charges to Karachi Urban Transport Corporation for the Project 'Revival of Karachi Circular Railways as Modern Commuter System'.
The ECC was informed that Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) had agreed to provide 93.5 percent ($2.4 billion) of the estimated cost for the project through soft loan at a markup of 0.2 percent payable in 40 years including 10 years grace period.
The remaining 6.5 percent ($169.6 million) will be borne by the Ministry of Railway (60 percent equity), Government of Sindh (25 percent equity) and the City District Government (CDG) Karachi (15 percent equity); the stakeholders of KUTC as per their share. The length of the KCR track will be 86 kilometres and 27 stations will be built around the city.
The ECC approved another Ministry of Railway's summary regarding approval for changes in the composition of Business Express. Ministry of Railways submitted a summary for ECC approval on July 2012 and subsequently a committee was constituted with Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Chairman Board of Investment and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission to examine the issue of changes in the composition of Business Express.
The committee recommendations included (i) Minimum occupancy to be achieved at 65 percent; (ii) Sharing ratio of gross revenue can be set at 80:20 between Pakistan Railways and Joint Venture Partners up to occupancy of 75 percent; (iii) for occupancy achieved above 75 percent, the sharing ratio between Pakistan Railway and Joint Venture Partners can be set at 75:25. The meeting also approved a summary moved by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research for sale of 12,000 MT of Wheat to World Food Programme (WFP) from the PASSCO's stocks at a price of $300 per MT. The wheat procured by WFP will be provided to the IDPs of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Moreover, the ECC also agreed to the proposal of selling another 40,000 MT of Wheat to WFP for consumption in Afghanistan.
The ECC approved LPG (Production and Distribution) policy guidelines, 2012 submitted by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources. The approval of the summary is in continuation to the decision by the ECC which considered the draft LPG (Production and Distribution) policy 2012 in its meeting held on 23-10-2012 whereby Ministry of Law and Justice was asked to furnish its detailed comments over the draft. The Ministry of Law and Justice approved the draft which was subsequently placed before the ECC for approval.
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