ECC approves Rs 5 billion Ramzan Relief Package

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee has approved the Rs 5 billion Ramzan Relief Package for Utility Stores Corporation-2023, Profit learnt on Wednesday.

The meeting of ECC was held under the committee chair, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. The Ministry of Industries and Production submitted a summary on the relief package.

The ECC after discussion approved a hybrid model of Ramzan Relief Package (Targeted and Untargeted) consisting of 19 items.

Sources said that the Ministry of Industries has allocated Rs 1.15 billion for targeted and Rs 3.84 billion for untargeted subsidies which will be given on vegetable ghee, tea, flour, sugar, milk, beverages, dates and gram flour.

Meanwhile, the government has also kept Rs 14 million for media coverage of the Ramzan package.

It is pertinent to note that the PTI government had allocated Rs 8.24 billion for USC in 2022.  

The ECC also considered a summary tabled by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research regarding procurement price of the wheat crop 2022-23, and after a detailed discussion approved a uniform procurement price of Rs 3900/40 kg.

The ECC also considered a summary submitted by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs. It approved the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) board’s resolution regarding waiving off of all the charges of storage on the stuck-up containers/cargo held up at Karachi Port as a result of non-retirement of Letter of Credits (LCs) and remittances of foreign exchanges. The approval is subject to the condition that demurrage charges on each case beyond Rs 5 million will be waived off after getting certification from SBP. The committee further directed to submit a report on magnitude and amount of cleared consignments on monthly basis.

The Ministry of Energy ( Power Division ) submitted a summary on Uniform Tariff for K-Electric at par with XW DICSOS 2nd Quarter 2021-22. The ECC after discussion, approved tariff rationalization for K-electric by way of adjustments on the consumption of July 2022 to September 2022 and to recover from consumers from March 2023 to May 2023 respectively.

The ECC considered another summary of Ministry of Energy ( Power Division) on uniform tariff for K-Electric at par with XW DISCOS 1st Quarter 2022-23 and allowed tariff rationalization by way of adjustments for K-electric on the consumption of Feb-23 to March-23 and to recover from consumers in March-2023 to April 2023 respectively.

The ECC also considered another summary of the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) and approved the proposal regarding enhancement of surcharge for financial year 24 to cover federal government obligations towards power producers. Further, these surcharges for FY 24 will also be applied to K-Electric consumers to maintain uniform tariff across the country.

 

Shahzad Paracha
Shahzad Paracha
The writer is a member of Pakistan Today's Islamabad bureau. He can be reached at [email protected]

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