ECC allows barter trade with Iran and Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has allowed barter trade with Iran and Afghanistan and extended subsidies on five essential commodities till March.

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin, presided over the meeting of the ECC on Thursday, where the Ministry of Commerce presented a summary for grant of regulatory support for establishing barter trade arrangements with Afghanistan and Iran.

The ECC allowed the regulatory cover to barter trade arrangements by amending relevant provisions of EPO 2020 and IPO 2020.

The meeting also allowed the Ministry of Industries and Production to build strategic reserves of sugar to avoid price variation and hike in the prices in future.

Accordingly, the federal government will purchase 0.30 million tonnes sugar and provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh will purchase 0.20 million tonnes of sugar for the strategic reserves from sugar mills in the current crop year when the prices are lower in the local market.

On another summary presented by the Ministry of Industries and Production regarding continuation of the un-targeted subsidy on five essential commodities i.e., flour, cooking oil, sugar, rice and pulses, the ECC allowed the continuation of subsidy for these items from 24 to 28 of February, 2022 and for the month of March, 2022.

Further, the chair directed the Utility Stores Corporation to seek guidance from the Ministry of Law and Justice on the continuation of subsidy on these items for the initial 23 days of February.

The Ministry of National Food Security and Research (NFS&R) presented a summary for withdrawal of its earlier summary for 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan. The ECC allowed the withdrawal of the earlier summary and granted permission for already provided 6,627 tonnes of wheat worth Rs0.67 billion to Afghanistan.

The NFS&R Ministry presented another summary on the fixation of Pakistan Agricultural Storage & Services Corporation’s (Passco) wheat procurement targets along with cash credit limits. The ECC assigned Passco the target of 1.20 million tonnes of wheat with the cash credit limit (CCL) for Rs65 Billion at MSP of Rs1,950/40Kg.

The ECC approved various supplementary and technical supplementary grants including Rs684.00 million in favour of the Ministry of Economic Affairs as the first instalment and mobilisation advance against the disbursement schedule provided by National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) for the fiscal year 2021/22.

It also approved a grant of Rs20 million for the Ministry of Housing and Works for Execution of Development Schemes in Sindh Province under SAP” and Rs200 million in favour of the Ministry of Housing and Works from PSDP.

The meeting also approved a grant of Rs450 million for the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination for the project “Strengthening Existing Capacity for National Institute of Health for Effective Response against Covid-19 Pandemic in Pakistan”.

Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam; Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Omar Ayub Khan; Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib; Federal Secretaries and other senior officers participated in the meeting.