The Economic Co-ordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC) has decided to provide a subsidy of Rs 500 on 50 kg bag of potash to promote balanced use of fertiliser, and not let the price of potash increase beyond Rs 1900 per bag.
The meeting of the ECC, presided over by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Tuesday decided that the State Bank of Pakistan would monitor and withhold the issuance of Letters of Credit (LCs) till the achievement of set target of 50,000 tons.
The importers will get subsidy on submission of import documents to SBP and total financial implications involved would be around Rs 0.5 billion. While discussing the draft leasing of 'Right of Way' policy of the National Highway Authority (NHA), the ECC directed NHA to re-submit a comprehensive plan on this subject, which may also include the concept of erecting service centres at every 25 kilometres of major highways. Bidding for such service centres should be done on commercial basis.
Ministry of Food and Agriculture briefed the meeting about availability and pricing position of pulses in the country. While reviewing key economic indicators, the ECC was informed that the monthly core inflation rate had decreased from 11.0 percent in October, 2009 to 10.6 percent in November, 2009.
During July-November 2009-10, the average CPI based inflation stood at 10.26 percent against 24.65 percent in the same period of last year. Food inflation stood at 9.97 percent as against 31.94 percent last year. The meeting was also told that the sensitive price index (SPI) for the week ending December 10, 2009 decreased by 1.07 percent over the previous week (December 3, 2009) and averaged 10.62 percent over the corresponding week of last year.
The ECC was also informed that the stock of wheat as on December 6, 2009 amounted to 7.805 million tons as against 2.484 million tons in the same period of last year, thereby showing a higher stock of about 5.321 million tons compared to last year. About import/export position, the meeting was told that exports increased by 0.97 percent in November 2009 over the same month of last year.
Imports recorded a negative growth of 6.94 percent in November 2009 over the same month of last year. Trade deficit improved by 37.57 percent to $5.47 billion in July-November 2009-10 from $8.77 billion in the same period last year. Foreign exchange reserves stood at $13.52 billion as on December 10, 2009 - up from $6.4 billion on November 25, 2008.
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