ECC approves Kissan Package: Power tariff for tubewells reduced to Rs13 per unit

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet Tuesday approved Kissan Package-2022 with a reduction in electricity tariff for tubewells to Rs13 per unit from Rs16.60 per unit and Rs93.438 billion for settlement of payables to government-owned power plants at par with IPPs.

The ECC meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar approved the Power Division’s summary for settlement of payables to government-owned power plants at par with the IPPs through a Technical Supplementary Grant of Rs93.438 billion in three tranches of Rs31.146 billion each.

The ECC discussed the summary submitted by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research submitted on Kissan Package-2022 and approved the base tariff for electric tubewells at Rs13/kWh from Rs16.60/kWh, providing relief to farmers of Rs3.60/kWh effective from 1st November 2022 to compensate the damage caused by floods and heavy rains.

About the export of sugar, sources said that the matter remained inconclusive during the meeting of the Sugar Advisory Board (SAB) ahead of the ECC meeting.

The ECC meeting has also allowed launching a new scheme “Credit Guarantee Trust Scheme” for low-income housing through Second Supplemental Trust Deed with an amount of US$85 million to be obtained from the World Bank (WB) to provide risk cover to financing institutions against their financing to housing sector.

Govt urged to notify revised power tariff for tube wells

In a summary to the ECC, the Finance Division stated that Pakistan Mortgage Refinance Company Limited (PMRC) was setup as a joint initiative of the government of Pakistan and commercial banks/development finance institutions (DFIs) to provide medium- and long-term funding to primary mortgage lenders by raising from the capital debt market at cheaper rates.

The PMRC being the trustee launched a scheme titled, “Credit Guarantee Trust Scheme” under the First Supplemental Trust Deed. To expand the provision of risk cover to FIs against financing in the housing sector, the WB approved an additional credit line to the government of Pakistan for housing finance project which may be passed on to Credit Guarantee Trust Fund.

The ECC also approved a summary of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research after detailed deliberation on minimum indicative prices for various types of tobacco for different areas for 2023 tobacco crop. The ministry submitted summary on fixation and notification of minimum indicative prices of tobacco crop 2023.

The ECC after deliberation approved the proposal of the Power Division on uniform tariff for K-Electric. The ECC was further informed that such adjustment would be applicable on the consumption from October 2022 to January 2023 to be recovered from consumers in December 2022 to March2023, respectively.

The Power Division in the summary stated that the KE applicable uniform variable charge is required to be modified to maintain the uniform tariff across the country with category-wise increases including general supply tariff – residential, supply tariff – commercial, industrial supply tariff, bulk supply tariff, agriculture tariff, and public lighting with recovery period of four months.

The Ministry of Commerce submitted a summary for individual tariff rationalisation proposal from different sectors for review of regulatory duties (RDs).

The ECC after discussion approved the proposal to reduce RD on Disodium Carbonate (PCT – 2836.2000) from the current rate of 20 per cent to 10 per cent and imposed RD at rate of five per cent on filament yarns (PCT 5402.3300, 5402.4600, 5402.4700, 5402.5200 and 5402.6200).

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting submitted a summary for the allocation of budget to launch a comprehensive media awareness campaign on government initiatives, programmes, and projects.

The ECC, after a detailed discussion, approved a supplementary grant of Rs2 billion for flood-related media campaigns. The ECC approved Rs15 billion in favour of the Election Commission of Pakistan for the current financial year 2022-23. Out of Rs15 billion, Rs5 billion will be released immediately while the balance will be released in tranches on utilisation of the first tranche.

The ECC also approved a Technical Supplementary Grant amounting to Rs162.521 million in favour of the Ministry of Housing and Works in addition to approving Rs250 million for the execution of a development scheme titled, “Construction of railway underpass, Gojra, District Toba Tek Singh” and Rs144.210 million for the execution of development schemes in District DI Khan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022