ECC slashes SCO summit vehicles budget

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government on Monday cut the demand for money and number of vehicles by nearly half to Rs6.6 billion for purchases of bullet-proof vehicles for security of heads of the states, who would visit Pakistan next year, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.

Headed by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet took up a summary for provision of Rs12.6 billion supplementary grant for the purchase of bullet-proof vehicles for the SCO's Council of Heads of State Summit.

The Cabinet Division had moved the summary for the purchase 35 Mercedes 680 S45 class bullet-proof vehicles, 29 BMW X5 and six Toyota LC300 vehicles. The Finance Ministry confirmed that the Cabinet Division had sought Rs12.6 billion.

"The ECC discussed the proposal in detail and after due deliberation approved a technical supplementary grant of Rs6.6 billion for purchase of 30 bullet-proof vehicles", according to the announcement by the Finance Ministry after the meeting.

The ECC had further asked the Cabinet Division to revert with additional requirements and directed Cabinet Division to conduct an in-depth need analysis for any further demand, and bring up the case again if required, the ministry stated.

But the Cabinet Division had submitted the summary after undertaking such analysis and sought funds to make sure that the vehicles are delivered during the May-July period of next year ahead of the September 2027 Summit. The ministry did not give any reason for denying Rs6 billion funds.

The summary had been presented to the ECC after discussing the needs of the vehicles at the level of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, according to the government officials.

The response from the spokesman for the Finance Ministry about the reasons for reducing the budget by half was awaited till the filing of the story. The office of the finance minister was also not available for comments.

The Finance Ministry said that the SCO Summit is going to be hosted by Pakistan in September 2027. Pakistan last week took over the chairmanship of the SCO's Council of Heads of States for one year. The ministry did not share details of the vehicles that would be purchased at the reduced cost of Rs6.6 billion.

However, the Cabinet Division had sought Rs6.6 billion for purchase of 30 Mercedes Benz Maybach vehicles at a price tag of Rs220 million per vehicle. The allocation and the number of vehicles mentioned by the Finance Ministry suggested that the ECC only approved these vehicles.

The Cabinet Division had also demanded Rs5.5 billion for purchase of 29 BMWs of two different variants. It had requested another Rs476 million for purchase of six Toyota LC 300.

Pakistan is expected to host nine heads of state, two observer states, 15 dialogue partners, up to four guests of the chair, Pakistan, and 11 heads of international and regional organisations, including the United Nations Secretary General.

The government has assured foolproof security to the visiting delegations. The officials said that the prime minister had constituted a committee under the chair of Ishaq Dar to finalise the arrangements, including security related requirements.

They said that the committee had reached the conclusion that given the existing position of the vehicles available with the federal and the provincial governments, there was a need to import at least 65 vehicles.

The Cabinet Division had also sought exemption from payment of custom duties, sales tax and federal excise duty on the purchase of these vehicles. But the Finance Ministry did not mention in the press release whether or not these exemptions were approved by the ECC.

Other matters

The ECC considered a summary submitted by the Food Security Ministry regarding minimum indicative prices (MIPs) of tobacco crop and revision of cess rates for FY 2026-27. After thorough discussion, ECC found that proposal required further rationale-building; therefore, it deferred the agenda and directed the ministry to resubmit the proposal with justifiable analysis.

The ECC's decision to consider a summary to influence the market price is in breach of commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that bars Pakistan from interfering in the commodity market.

The ECC also considered the summary submitted by the Food Security Ministry regarding recommendations of the committee constituted to resolve issues relating to export of donkey meat and hides from Gwadar Free Zone. The ECC approved the proposal with required safeguards as recommended by the ministry.

The ECC considered and approved the proposal of the Food Security Ministry for continuation of gas supply to FatimaFert and Agritech till September 30, 2026, under the existing arrangement.

The ECC also approved the summary submitted by the Education Ministry regarding provision of Rs5 billion as seed money for the Daanish Schools Authority Fund to be maintained under Endowment framework. Under the Constitution, education is a provincial subject and the federal government's role is only limited to Islamabad Capital Territory and special areas.

In addition, the ECC reviewed progress on the Pakistan Skills Impact Bond (PSIB) and gave the Education Ministry a September 30, 2026 deadline to share substantive progress on the initiative, for which the GoP guarantee was extended.