Ban on Urea Export to stay in Pakistan
Pakistan Times Business & Commerce Desk

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), which met here Friday, was informed that exports, during the first quarter of the current financial year, increased by seventeen percent.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz chaired the meeting of the ECC moot.

The committee was informed that most of the additional increase in export has come from non-traditional items and value-added goods.

Revenue Collection

The ECC was also informed that the revenue collection for the first four months of the current financial year is estimated at over Rs. 165 billion as compared to Rs. 136 billion of the corresponding period of last year.

The ECC appreciated the efforts of Central Board of Revenue for collecting Rs. 15 billion which was more than the target. It lauded the measures taken by the State Bank for stabilising the exchange rate.

The Committee took note of the increase in the price of sugar in Karachi and directed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan to release fifty thousand tons of sugar immediately of which twenty thousand tons will be supplied to Karachi alone.

Directive to OGDC

It asked the OGDC to supply the gas at the doorsteps of investors to set up power plants at the mutually agreed sites.

The ECC decided to maintain the ban on urea export in view of the rising domestic demand. It was also decided that the government will sell the imported urea in the local market at the rate of 450 rupees per forty k.g. bag and thus absorbing the difference of more than seven hundred rupees per bag.

Old Fokker Planes

The Committee directed the PIA to look for supplier credit or export credit to purchase the seven new Bombardier Dash Aircraft to replace the old Fokker planes. The ECC directed the PIA to make the deals in a transparent manner.

The ECC was informed that the deficit provinces were not picking up imported wheat in a timely manner which is lying at the Karachi Port. As a result, the prices of wheat and flour are rising in the provinces.

The Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to take up these issues with the provincial governments at the earliest.●