ECC approves payment of Rs262bn to power plants via TSG

December 20, 2023 (MLN): The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, in its meeting held today, has approved the settlement of payables to Government-Owned Power Plants (GPPs) on par with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) with the release of Rs262.075 billion to public sector power plants through Technical Supplementary Grant (TSG).

The committee has also agreed to release an amount of Rs57bn as an advance subsidy in respect of K-Electric arrears.

Another crucial agenda of the meeting was the review of the Export Finance Scheme by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Standby Arrangement.

The committee's decision was to approve the Export Finance Scheme.

The ECC also authorized the disbursements of additional funds worth Rs25bn to the Intelligence Bureau during the current financial year 2023-2024.

The Summary regarding Profitable Support price for wheat crop 2023-24 submitted by NFS&R was also discussed.

After detailed deliberations with all the provinces ECC recommended last year's price i.e. Rs. 3900/40 Kg, given the substantial increase of 77% in support price in 2022/23, ECC endorsed that there shall be no subsidy on agriculture inputs which in any case is the responsibility of provinces.

The forum also gave approval of the notification of minimum indicative prices of Tobacco Crop 2024 and the revision of cess rates on tobacco for the year 2024-25.

It is crucial to note that the committee has delayed the approval of the TAPI project, a summary that was presented by the Petroleum Ministry.

To operationalize this requirement ECC approved to release of Rs3.87bn to EXIM bank for the current Fiscal Year.

While discussing the report on ECC decisions on PSM liabilities towards GoP as discussed on September 19, 2023, the Minister of Finance directed the Ministry of Industries to carry out a diagnostic survey to determine why liabilities of PSM persisted even though it had not been operational since 2015 and how PSM land had been allocated to housing companies and served other industries without due process.

ECC showed its displeasure on the PSM board and recommended that the Industries Division look into this issue for further necessary action.

An additional agenda item from the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication regarding the re-lending of GoP to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) was discussed and approved by the ECC.

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