ECC approves fair Urea pricing mechanism with ministry oversight

January 09, 2024 (MLN): The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Tuesday approved the mechanism for weighted average price with the direction to National Fertilizer Marketing Limited (NFML) for ensuring reasonable prices for Urea and Ministry of Industries & Production to provide oversight to the whole process, said a press release issued by the Finance Division today. 

The summary of the mechanism for the sale of imported urea at a basket price along with locally manufactured urea was tabled by the Ministry of Industries and Production for approval.

ECC was presented with five agendas an item of which the first summary was from the Intelligence Bureau for the provision of additional funds of Rs250 million during the current financial year 2023-24.

The Intelligence Bureau briefed the committee about the recent surge of terrorism which needed effective countermeasures to thwart nefarious designs of terrorists.

The committee approved the funds as a Technical Supplementary Grant (TSG) for up gradation, technical enhancement and field activities of the Intelligence Bureau with releases on a need basis.

In addition, the ECC considered and approved the summary of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination for the provision of Technical Supplementary Grant (TSG) amounting to Rs3.5bn in favour of the Federal Directorate of Immunization (FDI), and urged the provinces to clear their pending liabilities.

ECC also considered the summary of the Finance Division for signing the addendum to the Subsidiary Grant Agreement (SGA) regarding financial inclusion & infrastructure project and exemption from re-lending policy of release of funds to the State Bank of Pakistan and accorded its approval.

A summary from the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination was also tabled for approval of the release of grant for the participation of Pakistan’s Hockey team in international events and other sports promotion activities.

This grant, ECC was told would also be utilised for Davis Cup (Tennis) with India and other mind games like Scrabble and chess.

The committee approved the provision of additional funds amounting Rs100mn as Technical Supplementary Grant (TSG) for FY 2023-24.

The Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue, and Economic Affairs, Dr Shamshad Akhtar presided over the said meeting.

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