The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has approves increase in prices of gas for domestic consumers and other sectors from July 1, 2019, subject to clearance by the federal cabinet. A participant of the meeting stated that the ECC meeting chaired by Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh acceded to the proposal of Petroleum Division to allow import of petroleum products by PSO under Saudi Fund for Development and also reviewed various slabs of gas tariff. He said the ECC also approved, in principle, increase in the gas prices, as was proposed in the summary; however, final approval in this regard would be sought from the cabinet. The increase in rate of gas prices would be applicable on all slabs for domestic consumers and all other sectors including fertilizers, power, cement, zero-rated industry, CNG and commercial if is cleared by the federal cabinet as well.
Sources on condition of anonymity stated that another prior action of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme was met before the scheduled meeting of the Fund's Board on July 3, 2019.
The ECC meeting also approved the proposal of Ministry of Maritime Affairs to extend the existing tax incentives to the shipping sector from 2020-2030, subject to vetting by Law Division, in order to promote maritime sector and strengthen the shipping industry in the country.
The Power Division briefed the committee about the cash and non-cash settlement for power sector. The ECC decided that Industrial Support Package (ISP) and AJK power sector subsidy would be adjusted against the outstanding loan of the government of Pakistan from power sector entity.
It also approved the proposal of Power Division to provide additional power supply for three hours to the tube-wells as well as domestic and commercial consumers of Balochistan province for initial period of three months. In this regard, an amount of Rs 9 billion was approved for three months which is to be provided in three tranches.
The ECC decided to review the performance of QESCO on monthly basis to ascertain whether or not the recovery drive against the power sector defaulters is producing the desired results.
The ECC decided to give a deadline of three months to Power Division to resolve the issue of recovery from around 30,008 tube-wells of Balochistan. The committee directed the Power Division to accelerate the recovery campaign against the defaulters and submit a report to ECC on a monthly basis. The ECC approved supplementary and technical supplementary grants of various ministries/divisions.
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