The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet Monday banned the export of sugar to maintain the prices of the commodity in the domestic market. The ECC meeting was chaired by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, was given a briefing by the Ministry of Industries and Production on the current situation of sugar supply in the country. It was briefed that adequate stocks of sugar were available in the country but prices in both domestic and international market were showing an upward trend.
The ECC further directed that in case there was considerable decrease in available stock, ECC would be willing to reconsider the proposal for import of sugar as well as the removal of tariff and taxes on subject to import.
All the members of the ECC were convinced that there were adequate stocks of sugar available in the country and there was currently no compelling reason to import the commodity in the country. The ECC was briefed that there were 1.719 million tons of sugar stocks available with the Mills.
The committee directed the Ministry to talk to the provincial governments to control price of the commodity in the country as it was provincial subject.
The committee also considered and approved the Technical Supplementary Grant for release of funds amounting to Rs 3300.00 million during FY 2019-20 in respect of the project tilted “Prime Minister’s special package to implement “Skill for All” strategy as catalyst for TVET sector Development in Pakistan.
The ECC also approved the continuation of funding facility to ISGS and decided that the loan agreement between ISGS and GHPL be approved for a period of one year.
Any extension thereafter be subject to progress on the undertaken projects and as soon as the first project reaches closure, ISGS needs to become financially self-sustaining and after closure of the project it will also put forward a business plan how it will return the loan. ECC also approved the request by the Ministry of Law and Justice for a technical supplementary grant of US$ 1 million equivalent to Pak rupees as legal and miscellaneous expenses in the case of Reko-Diq. The committee also directed the Ministry to give a detailed briefing on the details of the case in the next meeting.
