ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Wednesday took the first major step towards an alternative gas pipeline which involves India and Afghanistan as well and appointed the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as the transaction adviser, a key technical requirement.
Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar said, “Involving a credible financial institution as transaction adviser will ensure greater transparency in the deal.”The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline is supported by the US as against the Pak-Iran pipeline, which is facing serious problems because of lack of finances. Iran has backed out of its commitment to provide $500 million to Pakistan.
The meeting was informed that foreign remittances had reached $5.2 billion in the first quarter of the FY 2013-14, 6.3 percent more than the corresponding period last year and the foreign direct investment had increased by 85 percent in the first quarter of this financial year.“This speaks volumes about the seriousness of the PML-N government in the economic uplift of the country,” the finance minister said.
Ishaq Dar, expressing concern over inflation and price hike in the country, said that it was mainly due to an increase in international fuel prices and expressed the hope that there would be little adjustments in the future. “The government is sensitive to the hardships of the people and is on an average providing a subsidy of around Rs2.2 billion every month just to lessen the burden of the rise in fuel prices on the common man.”
The meeting noted that the recommendations made by a committee constituted by the ECC under the chairmanship of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor would study the process of portfolio investment.
The meeting also discussed a draft policy for regulation of organisations receiving foreign contributions.It is pertinent to mention here that the ECC, in its meeting held on July 2013, constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the minister for science and technology to review the regulatory framework for NGOs/INGOs working in Pakistan.
The ECC was told that a draft policy had been prepared after meeting with all the stakeholders and the matter would now be brought up before the ECC after further consultation with the Law Division in the next two weeks.
The ECC approved the transfer of Engro Corporation Ltd’s investment in Engro Foods, Netherland B.V. to Engro Foods (Ltd) Pakistan.Regarding the Energy Efficiency Audit of the captive power plants, the ECC decided to form a committee under the chairmanship of secretary, Ministry of Water and Power and comprising representatives of ministries of Industries and Production and Petroleum and Natural Resources, Commerce, Nepra and Ogra. The committee will propose a viable plan for the capacity building for energy efficiency audits and to introduce transparency in the system. “We shall start the process of conducting energy efficiency assessment from the public sector and will initiate an awareness campaign for the private sector to use methods that could save energy and help bring the country out of its present energy crisis,” Ishaq Dar said.
He expressed satisfaction over the positive development that large scale manufacturing had increased by 12.8 percent during the month of September.This sector has experienced a growth of 8.4% during the first quarter of the financial year 2013-14, mainly because of the proactive approach of the government in liquidating the circular debt resulting in increased generation. Consequently, growth in the large-scale industrial sector experienced an increase of 6 percent in June 2013, which gradually increased to 12.8% in September because of the addition of 1,700MW to the national grid.
The ECC did not come up with the decision to impose a ban on export of tomatoes and onions as was suggested by the Ministry of Food and Security. It also failed to come with an alternative plan to provide relief to the inflation-stricken masses.
Sources said that the Finance Ministry was evasive to place a ban on the export of onions and tomatoes as per the undertaking that had been extended to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the government will not take any policy decision to arrest the inflation at least for one year.
However, Ishaq Dar rejected the proposal of banning the export and advised the officials of the Ministry of Food Security to bring a better and much more practical proposal to check the rising prices on long-term basis. The ECC also directed the Ministry of Food Security to form a committee to keep a watch over the prices and deferred the matter till the next meeting.
It is interesting to note that the officials of the Food Security Ministry came up with strange arguments during the meeting saying that during the past three days a survey was conducted in the local markets and it was observed that the prices were already going down and by the end of this month, they would improve further.
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