Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance and Revenue, chaired the Cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) meeting on Wednesday. The Ministry of National Food Security and Research provided a report on the wheat condition in the nation.
During the conference, it was briefed that there are sufficient wheat stocks available in the nation to meet the requirements of the population. It was also pointed out that the amount of wheat procured during this year is 33 percent lower than the amount of wheat procured during last year’s respective periods.
Also, a problem is the latest increase in wheat and wheat flour prices. The ECC has chosen to impose a ban on wheat/wheat flour exports and has also requested that a meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee be convened to propose steps to regulate the price hike trend of’ Roti’ and other wheat products on the local market with the collaboration of the provincial governments.
The ECC also endorsed National Fertilizer Marketing Limited (NFML) to fix the 50 kg imported Urea Bag’s Dealer Transfer Price (DTP) at Rs.1800, which is lower than Sona Urea’s prevailing average market price. Rs.1966 for a bag of 50 kg. The difference in Urea import price and authorized NFML dealer transfer price was estimated at Rs.937.92 million; NFML was also aimed to guarantee that this price is enforced through cooperation with provincial governments.
The ECC permitted PIA Corporation Limited to re-appropriate its fleet’s in-flight entertainment (IFE) scheme for 8 Boeing-777 aircraft in its already authorized budget of Rs.24 billion.
The ECC supported the decision of the Pakistan Statistics Bureau’s Governing Council to alter the value statistics base from 2007-08 to 2015-16.
Among others, the meeting was attended by Minister for National Food Security & Research, Sahibzada Muhammad Mehboob Sultan; Minister for Planning, Development & Reform, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister for Privatization, Muhammad Mian Soomro, Minister for Railways, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Adviser to PM on Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood; Adviser on Institutional Reforms and Austerity, Dr. Ishrat Hussain; SAPM on Petroleum, Nadeem Babar; Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Reza Baqir and Chairman, Board of Investment, Zubair Gilani.