ISLAMABAD: The Econ-omic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has expressed its anger at failure to ensure timely procurement of wheat and wheat import to maintain a buffer stock to keep the wheat flour prices stable in the country.
A day after Prime Minister Imran Khan held a meeting on issue of wheat and wheat flour prices in the country and ordered a crackdown on hoarders and smugglers of wheat, the matter landed in the meeting of the ECC of the Cabinet presided over by Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Wednesday.
A participant of the meeting told Business Recorder that the ECC was dissatisfied with the performance of the Ministry of National Food, Security and Research (NFSR) and provinces as neither wheat procurement target was timely achieved nor did the ministry issue limitless wheat import permit to private importers and initially issued 0.5 million metric tons of wheat import permit followed by another over two lac metric tons and now when the international prices of wheat are relatively higher and may involve a sizeable subsidy, the ministry wanted to issue wheat import permit of 7.5 lac metric tons.
According to participants, all this was annoying for the adviser on finance, who said to have stated that poor management of wheat created an embarrassing situation for the government, and it was being criticised for rise in flour prices in the country. Had there been sufficient wheat stock, the government may not have been facing this situation, the adviser was quoted as saying.
The ECC directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to accelerate efforts for wheat import in order to ensure the availability of wheat and wheat flour in the country throughout the year at affordable prices, after it was told that more than 120 importers have so far shown interest to import wheat.
The meeting was also unhappy with the wheat procurement performance of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government as the province has procured only 19,000 metric tons of wheat so far against the target of around 100,000.
The ECC directed that the Ministry of NFSR should hold a meeting with the major importers of wheat, at the earliest, and come up with proposals that may indicate that the expected price of the imported wheat, and if there is any need for the government to allow subsidy on the product to keep the prices stable in the domestic markets.
The Ministry of NFSR briefed the ECC that combined together the provincial governments and the PASSCO have already achieved 79 percent of their procurement targets.
The ECC directed the Ministry of NFSR to extend requested facilitation to importers, including waivers of different taxes and duties.
It was also assigned by the ECC that the provincial governments, Trading Corporation of Pakistan and the PASSCO may arrange wheat imports as soon as possible to avoid shortages during the year.
The ECC also allowed the Asian Development Bank to issue offshore Pakistan rupee-linked bonds for international investors subject to completion of all the formalities.
The programme, according to the recommendation of the SBP, would be restricted to maximum of US$200 million.
The local currency proceeds of the bonds would be used for financing long-term infrastructure and energy projects in Pakistan.
On maturity, a participant of the meeting said that Pakistan would repay to the ADB in rupee after calculating the dollar rate at that point in time.
The meeting of the ECC allowed equity investment abroad amounting to SAR 22.5 million by Eastern Products Ltd.
On this occasion, the ECC also approved the increase of limit for investments abroad (to be approved/allowed by the SBP) from US$5 million to US$10 million beyond, for which permission will have to be sought from the ECC.
The ECC also allowed the Finance Division to release Rs1 billion to the SSGCL for undertaking gas supply to localities/villages falling within the 5km radius of gas fields in order to comply with the Supreme Court and the High Court decisions.
For the implementation of the e-office programme, the ECC directed the Ministry of Information Technology and the FIA to withdraw complaint against LMKR as well as withdrawal of all inquiries by the FIA on projects of the LMKR subject to fulfillment of agreement clauses.
The Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives was directed to activate the project on the request of the NITB and provide requisite funds to complete the work.
The ECC also approved five projects of different types of development works in North West Industrial Zone and South West Industrial Zone by the Port Qasim Authority with their own funds with the direction to the ministry and PQA to observe all the codal formalities for the completion of the projects.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020