ECC may give nod to 40,000 tons wheat purchase

Committee to meet today to review payment of salaries of PSM workers

ISLAMABAD:

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet will meet on Thursday (today) to consider giving nod to the purchase of 40,000 metric tons of wheat.

The ECC meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, will mull over an eight-point agenda including the approval of funds for the payment of salaries to the employees of Pakistan Steel Mills for the current financial year.

Pakistan has regularly bought wheat in the global market in past months in moves to improve tight local supplies and cool prices.

On Monday, the Trading Corporation of Pakistan issued an international tender to purchase and import 640,000 tons of wheat.

The deadline for submission of price offers in the tender is September 29.

The committee will also consider exemption of tax on sending 4,500 metric tons of yellow peas to Afghanistan under the World Food Programme.

Pakistan had already donated necessary food items loaded in 17 container trucks on humanitarian grounds to the newly-established Taliban government in Afghanistan.

A ceremony to hand over the humanitarian assistance to the Afghan Taliban officials was held at Torkham on Sunday.

Read Govt probes TCP chief over delay in wheat import

Pak-Afghan Cooperation Forum chairman Habibullah Khan along with other Pakistani officials handed over the loaded containers to Taliban leader Maulvi Mubariz Afghani.

The ECC will also review the approval of the Kamyab Pakistan Programme (KPP). The government recently decided to to scale back the size and scope of the KPP aimed at addressing “legitimate” concerns of the bureaucracy and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Sources told The Express Tribune that the government had now decided to begin a pilot project of the programme first instead of launching the initiative across the country.

A brainchild of the finance minister to financially empower the lowest income groups, the government had initially planned to give interest-free-to-subsidised loans to 30 million people across the country and disburse Rs1.6 trillion loans in three years.

The ECC is also likely to give nod to the determination of dividend on the shares of the State Bank for the year ending June 30, 2021.

The approval of release of advance funds for the construction of an FC training centre in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will also be reviewed.

The ECC is also likely to approve financial support for power generation companies (Gencos).
It is likely to consider a summary of the adjustment of the closed Gencos’ pensioners.

Last month, the Senate Standing Committee on Power had observed that the number of employees in government-owned Gencos had exceeded their need and recommended a cut down on the workforce, adding that doing so would lighten the burden on the national exchequer.

The chairman of the committee had observed that circular debt was increasing due to failure of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) in recoveries of arrears. He added that these companies were not interested in the recoveries especially from the police department as they were scared of the uniform.

(With input from Reuters)