Subsidy to sugar mills: Mandviwalla says ECC favouring Punjab

ISLAMABAD:

PPP senator Saleem Mandviwalla has termed the decision of providing Rs7 billion subsidy only to Punjab-based sugar mills as an example of favouritism by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

Mandviwalla stated that the ECC has denied Sindh-based mills the opportunity to avail the subsidy which shows a high level of nepotism. He said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has converted a very high level economic platform of ECC into a political one.

He said that ECC has made a political decision to provide Rs7 billion to only those sugar mills which had paid a rate of Rs180 per 40kg to the farmers. Mandviwalla questioned how the finance minister could possibly know such details.

“Obviously, ECC has no mechanism to check this. It doesn’t even have a record of payments that the mills made to farmers.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2016.

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