Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Mr. Miftah Ismail presided over the meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet at Finance Division today.
Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar, Federal Minister for Power Mr. Khurram Dastgir Khan, Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi MNA/ex-PM, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr. Aisha Ghous Pasha, Minister of State for Petroleum Mr. Musadik Masood Malik, SAPM on Government Effectiveness Dr. Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan, Coordinator to the PM on economy Mr. Bilal Azhar Kayani , Coordinator to PM on Commerce & Industry Rana Ihsan Afzal, Federal Secretaries and senior officers attended the meeting.
Ministry of Energy (Petroleum division) presented a summary on syndicated running finance facility for PSO. PSO’s liquidity issues were discussed in ECC meeting on 31st July,2022, in which it was also discussed to arrange a government guarantee loan to ease out liquidity issues of PSO. A consortium of banks was formed including ABL,NBP, MCB, UBL and HBL for sanctioning a loan amounting to Rs. 50 billion to PSO through a government guarantee. As the issuance of guarantee will take time, the banks have shown their willingness to initiate the process of issuing loan on letter of Comfort.
In view of above, the ECC approved the proposal to issue a letter of comfort in favour of PSO for raising a loan facility of Rs. 50 billion on urgent basis. However, Finance Division to divert some other allocated guarantees to PSO without exceeding Rs. 105 billion domestic guarantee limit for the 1st quarter of CFY.
Ministry of Aviation submitted a summary regarding issuance of GoP guarantee in favour of National Bank of Pakistan. It was informed that Roosevelt Hotel Corporation (RHC) is owned by Pakistan International Airlines-Investment Limited (PIA-IL). Hotel business was slow down in USA and around the world due to Covid-19 pandemic. RHC was shut down in December,2020 to avoid losses. A committee headed by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission was constituted to look into the financial challenges of RHC. ECC approved GoP support of US$ 142 million on the recommendation of the committee. Finance Division arranged financing facility as loan from National Bank of Pakistan. The ECC after discussion approved GoP guarantee for financing facility of US$ 142 million as loan in accordance with facility agreement between Roosevelt Hotel Corporation (RHC) and the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP).
Ministry of Industry and Production tabled a summary for revision of price of imported Urea. It was informed that the price of imported Urea stored in NFML warehouses is lower than locally manufactured Urea. In order to remove disparity in the prices of imported and locally manufactured Urea, the ECC approved the proposal that Dealer Transfer price (DTP) of 50 kg imported Urea may be revised upward at Rs. 1805/bag by NFML (exclusive of dealer margin of Rs. 145/bag) for the stocks sold between June 23 to July 25,2022. Further DTP of remaining stocks held with NFML may further be revised upward to Rs. 2150/bag (exclusive of dealer margin of Rs. 50/bag) with effect from July 26, 2022 onwards. The ECC further directed to fix the Urea pricing and dealer margin in future with prior approval of the ECC.
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