Euro 57.75 million soft loan for CDCP-II: Cabinet approves to start talks, sign accord with Italy

The Federal Cabinet has approved in principle to start negotiations and signing of agreement between Pakistan and Italy for soft loan of Euro 57.75 million for Citizen Damage Compensation Programme (CDCP-II).
Briefing media persons here on Thursday after the Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Minister for Information, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said Ministry of Economic and Finance of the Republic of Italy had committed to finance the CDCP-II through a soft loan of Euro 57.75 million.
The minister said that the role of media was very important for democracy and no one could think of controlling it. She said that the Cabinet meeting considered and gave approval to reduce from 1 to 0.5 percent contribution in Research and Development Fund by the fixed line operators from their annul gross revenue to bring them at par with mobile operators. The Cabinet had earlier constituted a Sub-Committee to decide the matter. Meeting of the Committee under the Chairmanship of Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, took the following decisions:
"Since the differential in R&D fund contribution rates was created in January 2004 with the approval of Cellular Mobile Policy, the new rate of 0.5 percent of the Annual Gross Revenue for the Fixed Line Operators was already approved by the Cabinet, to bring it in line with the contribution rate for the Cellular Mobile operators, and will be given effect from the same date."
The minister said that the Federal Cabinet reviewed the implementation status of Cabinet decisions pertaining to Privatisation, Production and Railways Divisions. The meeting was informed that that 50 percent decisions pertaining to Production, 50 percent Privatisation and 45 percent pertaining to Railways had been implemented. The Cabinet also discussed progress on restructuring of Pakistan Steels Mill. The Prime Minister directed that complete plan should be brought before the Cabinet in the next meeting.
The Cabinet considered and gave its approval for confirmation of the decisions taken by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet in its meeting held on March, 13 2012. The Finance Secretary, Wajid Rana, briefed the Cabinet about the trends of prices of essential commodities.
The Cabinet was informed during the presentation on Consumer Price Index (CPI) that during the week ending March, 15 2012 there was a trend of rise in prices of 25 items including tomatoes, rice, gram pulse, vegetable ghee. prices of tomatoes will decrease when the fresh crop will come in the month of April.
The prices of five items decreased during the week ending on March 15, 2012. The items include garlic, chicken, egg, onion and potatoes. The prices of 23 kitchen items remain unchanged. The items include mutton, oil, electricity charges and fuel charges etc.
The Minister said that the Cabinet considered and accorded its approval to signing of the Agreement on Transfer of Offenders between Pakistan and Uzbekistan. A delegation from Uzbek side visited Pakistan on July 25-26 2011 and negotiated the draft Agreement with the Pakistani delegation participated by Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, FIA and National Police Bureau.
She said that the Cabinet also considered and gave its approval, in principle, to start negotiations and signing of the agreement between SAARC Disaster Management Authority and NDMA about South Asia Disaster Knowledge Network. The negotiations on the proposed agreement were initiated between National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and SAARC Disaster Management Centre (SDMC) during 2008.
The Cabinet considered and gave its approval, in principle, to start negotiations with the Ev-K2-CNR on Memorandum of Understanding on Climate Change and Adaptation Measures. The Everest, K2 Centre for Research (Ev-K2-CNR) has proposed signing of Memorandum of Understanding with Global Change Impact Study Centre (GCISC) to facilitate implementation and co-ordination of research activities in Pakistan.
Chairperson Benzair Income Support Program (BISP), Farzana Raja while briefing the Cabinet said that the BISP was not a political programme and was the programme of entire country. She briefed the Cabinet about BISP Programme and its achievements to eradicate extreme and chronic poverty and empowerment of women. She informed that 6 million families were benefiting from this programme through direct financial assistance of Rs 1000 per month to the female head of the family.
The Chairperson apprised the Cabinet that 20,000 families have been selected through balloting which would qualify for Waseela-e-Haq programme of BISP. Under Waseela-e-Taleem scheme, three million children of six million families of BISP beneficiaries would be enrolled for education, who have never gone to school earlier. The Chairperson informed the Cabinet that wide gap between financial resources to implement BISP was being successfully met by mobilising support of international donors who are readily agreeing to extend support after viewing the reach and achievement of the programme since its inception.