ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has approved the release of Rs5 billion as bridge finance from the research and development (R&D) Fund for the Digital Information Infrastructure project.
The meeting presided over by Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar considered a summary submitted by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, and approved the release of Rs5 billion as bridge finance from the R&D Fund for the Digital Information Infrastructure project.
The Ministry of Information Technology in a summary to the ECC submitted that Pakistan’s ICT infrastructure is the key component of the country’s cyberspace and is prone to cyber-attacks and implementation of the digital information infrastructure initiative is crucial to mitigate the challenges of cyber-attacks by protecting national critical information infrastructure.
Rs70bn invested in telecom infrastructure & digital connectivity in last 3 years: Amin
The ECC was told that the digital information infrastructure initiative aims to provide requisite technical capabilities to proactively, identify potential cyber threats on the national critical information infrastructure besides blocking cyber security incidents/ breaches in real-time.
The ECC has also approved a summary submitted by the Ministry of Energy for the extension of GOP guarantee ceiling of Rs100 billion in favour of PSO till December 2024, subject to the approval of the terms and conditions of each financing facility by the Finance Division upon renewal. The ECC also discussed the summary submitted by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs regarding the “Revision of Lighthouse Dues”.
The ECC, after a detailed discussion, decided to revise the lighthouse dues from Rs7 NRT to Rs20 NRT, under Section 10(1) of the Lighthouse Act, 1927.
A proposal for disbursement of Rs20 billion credited to Federal Government Account by the Finance Department Government of Punjab for further disbursement to the Green Corporative Initiative (Pvt) for Green Pakistan Initiative was also discussed.
The ECC approved the disbursement with the observation that the provincial governments may directly engage with companies operating under Green Pakistan Initiative for future disbursements.
The ECC also took up a summary submitted by the Ministry of Energy regarding “Uniform Quarterly Tariff Adjustments for K-Electric Consumers at par with XWDISCOs 2nd and 3rd Quarterly FY 2023.”
After detailed discussion, it was decided by the ECC that the tariff rationalization by way of adjustments for K-Electric in line with the uniform QTA application guidelines already issued to NEPRA, shall be applicable on the consumption of July, August, and September 2023 to be recovered from consumers of K-Electric in December 2023, January 2024, and February 2024, respectively.
Moreover, application of XWDISCOs2nd QTA of Rs0.4689/unit, already approved for K-Electric consumers, in line with the uniform QTA application guidelines already issued to NEPRA, shall be applicable on the consumption of April, May, and June 2023 to be recovered from consumers of K-Electric in December 2023, January 2024, and February 2024, respectively.
Another summary submitted by the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety regarding the “Grant of Special Relief Package for Daily Wage Workers on Chaman Border” was also considered.
After detailed discussion and deliberation, the ECC asked BISP to examine the cases of 8,000 registered daily wage workers employed at the Chaman border to see whether they were already in its system and provide support to the eligible ones from its allocated budget in consultation with the Finance Department, Government of Balochistan for later reimbursement of the amount to be spent on providing six months support to the daily wage workers.
The summary submitted by the Ministry of Interior regarding technical supplementary grant amounting to Rs47.45 million within the sanctioned budget, for repair and maintenance, during the current fiscal year 2023-24, was considered and approved.
The ECC also considered a summary submitted by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication and approved the release of Rs5 billion as bridge finance from the R&D Fund for the Digital Information Infrastructure project.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
Comments
Comments are closed.