ECC approves minimum wheat support price at Rs1,650 per 40kg

ISLAMABAD, : The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet Friday approved the minimum support price for the wheat crop at Rs1,650 per 40kg while at the same time, it decided to maintain current release price at Rs1,475 per 40kg.

The meeting of the committee was held here with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the chair.

Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razaq Dawood, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Revenue Dr Waqar Masood, Minister for the Industries and Production Hammad Azhar, Minister for the Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar and Advisor to the Prime Minister for Institutional Reforms and Austerity Dr Ishrat Hussain attended the meeting. Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Reza Baqir and provincial chief secretaries also participated through video link.

After due deliberation, the ECC took key decisions with reference to demand and supply of wheat to stabilize local market and to reduce the wheat flour prices across the country.

As per direction by the prime minister, a coordination committee was constituted to deal with import of wheat and its logistics and distribution to the recipient agencies.

The committee would be chaired by the adviser finance and include Advisor to the prime minister for institutional reforms and austerity, minister for industries and production, SAPM on revenue, minister for national food security and research, and governor of State Bank of Pakistan.

It would also include secretaries finance, NFS&R, communications, commerce, maritime affairs, railways and chief secretaries of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh for smooth coordination.

After thorough consultation, the ECC also approved grinding ratio of wheat at the base level of 70:30. It was further decided that ratio for the refined varieties of wheat flour would be decided by the coordination committee later.

The ECC also approved aggregate release of wheat at 38,000 MT per day to the flour mills.

Representatives of all the provincial governments were on board. This included 25,000 MT by Punjab, 8,000 MT by Sindh, 4,000 MT by KPK and 1,000 MT by Balochistan.

The ECC also approved the request by the Punjab government to provide additional 0.7 MMT of wheat, out of which 0.4 MMT of wheat will be imported by TCP for Punjab.

Lastly, technical supplementary grant for the settlement of outstanding dues of non-litigant retired employees of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) amounting to Rs11.680 billion was also approved by the ECC.