The Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Friday allowed import of flour and wheat duty-free and without withholding tax (WT). The unlimited import of flour and wheat is being allowed for the first time without duty and withholding tax. Earlier, wheat was allowed to be imported duty-free but with withholding tax.
The government has announced Prime Minister's "Atta Relief Package" under which 'atta' will be made available through Utility Stores at the rate of Rs 11.50 per kg across the country.
The ECC meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, was informed around 400 Utility Stores, currently operating in the country, will sell five million bags of 10-kg atta every month that is expected to benefit up to 20 million people.
The Utility Stores Corporation will hire 59 vehicles which will carry out 24 trip each, per month, to make atta available in every nook and corner of the country at cheaper rates.
The Utility Stores currently have a capacity of selling 50,000 tonnes atta a month.
All cities, remote areas of Balochistan, Fata, Northern Areas and AJK and rural areas with limited cultivated land have been identified as priority areas to be covered under the "Package".
The atta bags, to be sold under the package, will have a special logo to prevent its misuse and will only be available at the Utility Stores.
SUKUK BONDS: The ECC also allowed Wapda to issue Rs eight billion Sukuk bonds in the domestic market and the amount would be utilised on the Mangla Dam raising project, aimed at increasing its storage capacity.
The meeting noted that Wapda was taking a hit, as it was not allowed to increase power rates in proportion to rising oil prices in the international market.
To provide relief to Wapda, the finance ministry has decided to convert its Rs 2l .6 billion liabilities into equity.
DRY PORT IN SUKKUR: On the special initiative of the Prime Minister, the ECC also granted permission to set up dry port in Sukkur. This will be first dry port in Sindh. The decision will help in increasing export of quality dates.
The meeting also noted that system of PC-1 had become outdated and was needed to be reviewed to expedite the process of project approval by the Planning Commission.
A committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Privatisation Minister Dr Hafeez Shaikh, which will submit its report in two weeks with regard to change in the PC-1 process.
REVENUE TARGET: The meeting congratulated CBR Chairman Abdullah Yousuf for achieving the revenue target for the fiscal year 2004-05.
According to the data available as on June 30, the CBR collected Rs 586.6 billion against the target of Rs 580 billion and the government was expecting the final figure to cross Rs 590 billion.
The increase in revenue is 13.3 percent higher than the collection of the preceding year.
Appreciating the "excellent" performance by the CBR, the Prime Minister asked the tax collection body to continue to perform with same zeal to meet the next year's challenging target.
Abdullah Yousuf assured the meeting that no efforts would be spared to meet the next year target.
FDI OVER $1.3 BILLION: The meeting also noted with satisfaction that the foreign direct investment (FDI) registered a record inflow of over $1.3 billion during 2004-05, showing an increase of 30 percent over the FDI inflow in the last year.
The meeting also discussed the prices of petroleum in the country and noted that last year the government tried to protect the consumers from the skyrocketing oil prices in the international market and suffered a revenue loss of Rs 58 billion in subsidies. It was pointed out that the increase in prices of petroleum products announced on Thursday was still less in proportion to their prices in the international market.
It was noted that had the government not made contribution to offset the impact of prices, the prices of diesel would have gone up to Rs 41 per litre instead of nearly Rs 31 per litre.
The ECC also lauded the performance of Privatisation Commission for negotiating an excellent transaction of the PTCL.