ECC approves various supplementary grants, Rs 100m for locust control in Punjab
The ECC approved Rs.3.2 billion for PIACL to discharge the obligations on account of mark-up
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet Wednesday approved many technical supplementary grants, including Rs 100 million for the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMF) to procure equipment for locust control in Punjab The ECC meeting was chaired by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.
The ECC approved Rs.3.2 billion for the Pakistan International Airline corporation Limited (PIACL) to discharge the obligations on account of mark-up against the Government of Pakistan s guaranteed loans; Rs25,206,953 in favour of the Pakistan academy for Rural Development (PARD) Peshawar for the current financial year; Rs 1,300 million to the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission to discharge its various liabilities and Rs 235 million to the Deputy Commissioner Islamabad for making payment of internal security duty allowance to troops of Pakistan Rangers (Punjab) deployed in the Federal Capital.
The committee also approved Rs 500 million for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to meet the expenditure of media campaign on COVID-19; Rs 7.947 billion for the NDMA on account of procurement of emergency equipment through Pakistan Foreign Mission in China (post facto approval on account of Pakistan National Emergency Preparedness and Response for COVID-19, procurement of equipment and transfer of funds) and Rs.4.5 billion for the capacity building of civil armed forces as requested by the Ministry of Interior.
The committee accorded approval for Rs 80 million for the Competition Commission of Pakistan for different expenses; Rs100 million for the purchase of kerosene oil by Headquarters Frontier Corps KP (North) to be used in different locations posts (8000 feet and above); Rs8.093 million for the Privatization Division for employees related expenditure, and grants for two TSGs amounting to Rs 1,192.325 million and Rs 358.506 million for the Ministry of Federal education and Professional Training for the Award of Scholarships to Afghan students The ECC also approved book value adjustment of overdue amount of loans amounting to Rs 30.807 billion to the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority over and above its allocated development and non-development budget.
It also allowed, on the recommendation of the committee earlier constituted by ECC, to convert two recent Chinese loans in to government loans keeping in view the subsuming of ERRA into NDMA and ERRA being non-profit/ non revenue generating entity.
The ECC accorded approval for the "handing over of Pakistan Machine Tool Factory to Strategic Plans Division. For the purpose of operationalization of PMTF, Rs 500 million would be provided to the SPD as a loan. The Federal Government would pay all the liabilities accrued till the transfer of management control of PMTF to SPD, after partial settlement of liabilities of Rs 1.78 billion.
The ECC also approved the "Risk Sharing Facility for SBP Refinance Scheme to support employment and prevent layoff of workers. The scheme supports provision of credit at concessional rate to businesses that commit not to lay off workers till September 2020 ( earlier the cutoff date was 30th June 2020), the loss coverage for SME sector has been increased to 60% from the existing 40% to promote greater take up at the smaller level of business.
Under the new changes the borrowers having turnover up to Rs 800 million can avail benefit of the scheme; earlier, for the eligibility of the scheme, the turnover limit was up to Rs 2 billion).
