ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to initiate an independent proposal for barter trade with the Russian Federation without affecting urgent import of 0.3 million tons of wheat, well informed sources told Business Recorder.

The proposal was floated by Finance Minister Dr Miftah Ismail at a meeting of ECC on May 28, 2022, while approving import of wheat from Russia that has been ratified by the Federal Cabinet on May 31, 2022.

The incumbent government is under criticism by the PTI leadership for not importing oil from Russia at a 30 per cent cheaper price as compared to oil prices in the international market.

Former Energy Minister, Hammad Azhar has demanded resignation from both the Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan and Minister of State for Petroleum, Musadik Masood Malik for their alleged failure to deal with energy crisis, effectively.

The Ministry of National Food Security and Research had submitted the following proposals to the ECC:

(i) import of 3.00 MMT of wheat in a phased manner;

(ii) import of wheat by adopting the option of G2G (2.00 MMT) and through international tendering process (1.00 MMT);

(iii) Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) will execute the entire quantity of wheat as allowed by the Cabinet on May 10, 2022;

(iv) Ministry of Foreign Affairs will clarify and endorse the queries made by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan;

(v) Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and TCP would jointly explore the possibility of barter trade with the Government of Russia. The issue was raised by the Secretary, MoFA in the meeting held in the PM House on May 16, 2022;

(vi) Ministry of Maritime Affairs to be directed to provide “priority berthing” as per sequel of the previous year;

(vii) PASSCO will be recipient agency for the imported wheat;

(viii) ) on need basis, Provincial Governments/ territories to submit their demands to MNFS&R for arranging import, accordingly;

(ix) import of 3.00 MMT of wheat by the TCP shall have been exempted from duties/ taxes on April 18, 2021 and exemption of PPRA Rules 2004 i.e., Rule, 5,13,35,38 and 40.

The ECC approved proposal with following additions/ clarifications: (i) execution shall be conducted through Ministry of Commerce, as per the existing protocol, signed between the Ministry of National Food Security and Research and Ministry of Agriculture, Russian Federation;

(ii) Additional Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarified that the sanctions were not on food items;

(iii) Finance Minister directed to initiate an independent proposal for barter trade with the Russian Federation but it should not affect the urgent import of wheat being undertaken; and

(iii) Ministry of NFS&R will get the wheat requirement from provincial Governments and the cost of PASSCO would be paid by the respective provinces.

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Copyright Business Recorder, 2022