Islamabad: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has approved import of 150,000 metric tons of sugar and payment of salaries to Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) employees besides approval of revised Kamyab Pakistan Programme (KPP) with considerable cut in loan size for the current fiscal year ahead of the 6th review of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin had confirmed to the media that IMF had raised some questions about the KPP pertaining to the capacity of partner financial institutions and with regard to 100 percent government guarantee to cover the financial risk.
He also confirmed to the media after a press conference a couple of weeks ago that the loan size of the programme for the current fiscal year has been reduced to half of Rs316 billion and unconfirmed reports suggest that the size has been further reduced by the ECC.
On Thursday, the ECC meeting presided over by Tarin approved revised KPP in consultation with stakeholders with equal sharing of risks by the banks to disburse microcredit for uplifting marginalised segments of the society.
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The KPP has five components namely, (i) Kamyab Karobar, (ii) Kamyab Kissan, (iii) Naya Pakistan low-cost housing, (iv) Kamyab Hunarmand, and (v) Sehatmand Pakistan.
Under the first three components, micro-loans would be disbursed among eligible persons registered with Ehsaas Data through the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER), who have family income of up to Rs50,000 per month.
The last two components of the KPP will be integrated with the existing programmes.
The KPP is aimed to integrate with the government’s ongoing skill development programme for imparting educational and vocational training.
As per revised framework of the KPP, selection of wholesale lenders (banks) would be made through competitive bidding in line with the PPRA rules and Micro Finance Providers (MFPs) would be selected by the wholesale lenders.
The government will provide two guarantees, (i) 10 percent first loss guarantee to the MFPs and (ii) 50 percent guarantee to WLs on pari-passu/risk-sharing basis. The ECC was informed that during the first phase, the KPP will be launched in Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, AJK, and few of the poorest districts of Sindh and Punjab.
Subsequently, the programme would be extended to whole Pakistan eventually.
On the implementation side, the Kamyab Pakistan Information System (KPIS), a digital portal, is being established, which is fully integrated with telecommunication companies, the NTC, Ehsaas/NSER, and the NADRA for verification of beneficiary’s eligibility.
Import of sugar, wheat approved by ECC
The ECC also approved three segregated tenders of 50,000 metric tons each for the import of sugar.
The committee further emphasised to ensure smooth supply of sugar throughout the country and directed to initiate crushing by sugar mills in the beginning of November 2021 as done last year.
The ECC also approved disbursement of monthly salaries to the PSM employees for the fiscal year 2021-22 (till implementation of the complete human resource retrenchment plan). The ECC considered and approved another summary by the Finance Division regarding fixation of dividend at the rate of 10 percent on the face value of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) shares for the financial year ended on June 30, 2021.
The ECC considered and approved a Technical Supplementary Grant (TSG) in favour of the Ministry of Interior for the construction of Frontier Constabulary Training Centre, Michni, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa amounting to Rs50 million during fiscal year 2021-22.The ECC approved the lowest bid received for award of fourth international wheat tender for the fiscal year 2021-22 to import 120,000 metric tons of wheat on the request of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. The finance minister stated that mutual consultation will pave the way for collective decision making under the umbrella of Cabinet Committees. This facilitates the process of decision making in the public sector.
The ECC considered and approved another summary presented by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research for purchase of 40,000 metric tons of wheat from the PASSCO by the World Food Programme (WFP). On a summary moved by the Ministry of Energy regarding financial support to GENCOS, the ECC approved Rs500 million as a technical supplementary grant out of the total budget allocated to the Power Division. The ECC considered and approved another summary presented by the Power Division regarding 40 percent payment of the total amount payable to the IPPs of 2002 policy.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021