The Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has held four meetings since Saleem Mandviwalla took over the portfolio of Finance on February 19 and approved as many as 30 summaries with a majority of them relating to the petroleum sector. A senior official said that the number of meetings as well as the number of approved summaries was unprecedented in Pakistan's history.
The normal practice, he added, was to convene an ECC meeting fortnightly. However, the new Finance Minister has chaired four meetings in less than three weeks, clearing the backlog of summaries which were deliberately delayed by his predecessor, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh. On February 22, Saleem Mandviwalla chaired his first ECC meeting - three days after taking the charge of the Ministry and approved six summaries. As many as five summaries were moved by the Petroleum Ministry. Those approved included allocation of 77.3 MMCFS gas from Latif Field to SSGCL and SNGPL, granting permission to import cylinders/kits and the arrangement of diversion of already allocated gas from Engro's old plant to their new plant till December 31, 2013.
On February 26, the second ECC meeting approved six summaries, of them five were again moved by the Petroleum Ministry. The Finance Minister also approved a bailout package for PIAC worth billions of rupees. The ECC, on a summary of Petroleum Ministry approved an increase in margin for oil marketing companies and dealers, recovery of Parco claims from freight pool (IFEM), and Ogra was directed to reimburse the price difference to Parco as per existing practice.
Third meeting of the ECC was held on March 6, 2013 and considered six summaries with one of them pertaining to Petroleum Ministry and five were related to other Ministries and Divisions. The fourth meeting of the ECC was held on March 8, which approved 10 summaries of them eight were moved by the Petroleum Ministry.
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