A special meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet is scheduled here today (Thursday) to ratify the decisions taken during the last meetings of the Ministerial Committee of ECC on Sugar and Cabinet Committee on Textiles.

Two LNG import projects are also expected to be considered during the meeting as the last ECC meeting had decided to defer these projects for obtaining legal advice from the Law Ministry so as to comply with Supreme Court of Pakistan’s guidelines.

The Ministerial Committee set up by the ECC met under the chairmanship of Minister for Industries and Production increased the price of sugar by Rs 10 per kg to Rs 55/kg from current Rs 45/kg at Utility Stores Corporation (USC) with immediate effect.

The committee had also recommended that 5 lac tonnes of raw sugar would be allowed to be imported duty free till the 30th of November 2010 on first some come first served basis. This would help the government to ensure sufficient reserves of the commodity in the next season of the sugar, the sources maintained.

The committee had also decided that provinces would get one lac tonne imported refined sugar from TCP at landing cost on cash payment so that supply of sugar can be ensured during the holy month of Ramazan. The meeting also decided that the TCP would continue the process of import of sugar to meet the domestic requirement of the country.

The meeting inter alia was informed of the total stock position on July 26, 2010 as 1.07 million tonnes with the breakup as follows, Punjab 6,00,000 tonnes, Sindh 2,77000 tonnes, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 43000 tonnes and Baloachistan 5000 tonnes while TCP had 182,000 tonnes. It was agreed to supply sugar through provincial mechanisms to supplement sugar stocks immediately.

In the first intervention, it was decided that TCP would complete the tendering process for import of remaining 375000 tonnes of white sugar on schedule. Furthermore, to ensure ample supplies in the market and to defeat hoarding and speculation, 100,000 tonnes of TCP imported sugar will be offloaded in the open market at import price through provincial mechanisms to supplement domestic sugar stocks immediately. The provinces will have to pay in cash as they lift the stocks from TCP well before Ramazan. The respective provincial allocations will be as follows: Punjab 50,000 tonnes, Sindh 17,000 tonnes, Baloachistan 8,000 tonnes, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 20,000 tonnes, AJK/Northern Areas 5,000 tonnes.

The meeting expressed satisfaction at the sugar reserves that are comfortably positioned for Ramazan and till the onset of the next crushing season.

The ECC is also expected to endorse the decision on elimination of regulatory duty on export of cotton yarn.

Source: The Daily Times, Pakistan (July 29th 2010)