From May 1, zero levies on imports will apply to all African countries except Eswatini, which maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan. PHOTO: PIXABAY
ISLAMABAD:
The Economic Coordination Committee on Wednesday conditionally approved import of up to one million metric tonnes of wheat in an emergency session but linked the final consignments with bank’s letter of credits of an estimated $340 million value on behalf of provinces that had demanded the commodity.
Headed by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, the ECC approved the proposal to constitute a steering committee, which would oversee the mechanism for the wheat import, mainly to make sure that the provinces pay their dues before import so that the cost is not borne by the federal government.
The Ministry of Finance issued a handout after the emergency ECC session, which explained the import mechanism without officially disclosing the import quantity.
The ECC has approved the import of up to one million metric tonnes of wheat and the referred the matter to Deputy Prime Minster Ishaq Dar-led steering committee for further action, said Rana Tanveer Hussain while talking to The Express Tribune after the meeting.
“The steering committee will, inter alia, do the need assessment and devise operational mechanism with reference to proposal of wheat import and demand of provinces”, stated the ministry without giving many details of an issue of highest public importance due to rising prices of wheat and wheat flour.
Rana Tanveer said that the estimated landed cost of imported wheat is $340 million while the inland freight cost would be borne by the provinces. He said that the provincial governments would be part of every step of import including deciding the quantity, quality and setting other benchmarks.
The federal government linked the wheat import with opening of letter of credits to avoid the repetition of import of sugar where the provinces did not make payments after committing, said the federal officials. They said that all cost would be borne by the provinces that had requested the import.
Another senior government functionary told The Express Tribune that the ECC decided to import 500,000 to one million metric tonnes of wheat as per final decision of provinces. The summary was presented by the secretary Ministry of National Food Security and Research Amir Ali Ahmad.
The maximum one million metric tonnes of wheat approval is equal to 45% of the total 2.2 million metric tonnes demands that the four provinces made in the wheat board meeting on Monday to deal with the wheat and wheat flour supply and prices crisis.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, wheat flour prices have increased on an average by 74% to Rs129 per kilogram as of last week over a year ago. The maximum national price was Rs150 per kg in Peshawar.
The government functionary said that the coordinator to Prime Minister on Agriculture Ahmed Umair shared with the ECC the import price working and total requirement of $340 million for the import.
The $340 million is equal to almost one-third of one loan-tranche of the IMF, which the government would be spending due to first ill-conceived exit from the wheat market in 2024 and then Punjab’s failure to procure three million metric tonnes of wheat this summer.
The steering committee would be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and all the other decisions would be taken by the steering committee.
