The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Thursday raised the minimum support price of wheat from Rs1,365 and fixed it at Rs1,400 per 40kg to ensure parity in wheat prices throughout the country.
The ECC meeting, with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the chair, held here also set up a high-level "Wheat Procurement Monitoring Group" to ensure smooth procurement of wheat by public sector departments in the upcoming harvest season.
The ECC in its meeting held on February 19, 2020 had decided to fix the minimum support price of wheat crop 2019-2020 at the level of Rs1,365 per 40 kg.
However, a meeting of Wheat Review Committee convened on Mach 9, 2020 under the chairmanship of National Food Security and Research Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar and attended by the food ministers of the KP, the GB and the AJK and secretaries of provincial Food Departments had recommended enhancement of support price of wheat for wheat crop 2019-2020 from Rs1,365 per 40kg to the level of Rs1,400 per 40kg.
An official said that the officials of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) during a presentation about weather forecast had informed that the expected weather condition in the end of March was likely to adversely affect the standing wheat crop especially in central Punjab.
Rains during this time are not good for farmers, as humidity not only affects the quality of wheat, but can also cause rust and fungus in the crop, which may cause serious damage to the total output.
The official said that the representatives of the concerned departments informed the meeting that a stock of 2.235 million tons of wheat was available in the country.
The meeting expressed satisfaction over the availability of sufficient quantity of wheat stock in the country to meet the needs.
The official said that the meeting directed all stockholders to achieve wheat procurement target of 8.25 million tons.
Out of 8.25 million tons, PASSCO will procure 1.80 million metric tons, Punjab 4.50 million metric tons, Sindh 1.40 million metric tons, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 0.45 million metric tons, and Balochistan 0.10 million metric tons.
The official of the Sindh government informed the meeting that its food department would start wheat procurement process from March 15, while Punjab was expected to begin wheat procurement in April.
The Ministry of National Food Security and Research submitted a summary to the ECC on the feedback received from various farmers' associations as well as different government forums and requested for fixing the minimum support price of wheat at Rs1,400 per 40kg.
The Wheat Procurement Monitoring Group comprises Khusro Bakhtiar, Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed, Economic Affairs Minister Hammad Azhar and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Petroleum Nadeem Babar.
The group would coordinate with the provincial governments, involve the public and use technology to ensure the process of wheat procurement by PASSCO and provincial governments in the coming harvest season was carried out in an efficient and transparent manner.
The Wheat Procurement Monitoring Group would also ensure that the allied issues related to incidental charges, supply of adequate gunny bags to farmers and procurement of wheat by provinces and the private sector as per plan and targets were properly streamlined and addressed to provide a level-playing field to all the stakeholders, including the public, in terms of provision of flour at the lowest possible price throughout the year.
Earlier, the ECC was given a detailed presentation on the arrangements made for the procurement of enhanced target of 1.8 million tons by the PASSCO, which also shared with the ECC an enhanced efficiency model in procuring increased target and mechanism to rationalise the incidental charges.
Besides the wheat issue, the ECC also discussed the falling prices of oil in the international market and its impact on the national economy and announced the benefit of the reduced oil prices in the global market would be passed on to the consumers in Pakistan in due course of time as per the mechanism already being followed by the government.
The ECC also approved a technical supplementary grant of Rs12.813 million of Inter-Board Committee of Chairman in favour of the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, and another technical supplementary grant of Rs13.02 million in favour of the Human Rights Division.
The ECC also approved the Annual Report of Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) for the financial years ended 2015, 2016 and 2017, and asked the CCP to give a detailed presentation to the ECC in the next meeting on the overall scope of its work and what had been achieved by the commission so far with regard to its mandated role to ensure fair competition in various sectors of economy it governed.
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