LAHORE – Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has permitted the export of three million tonnes of wheat in its meeting. Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in this connection has directed all Customs collectorates to ensure the smooth export of wheat from their respective ports. FBR has directed Customs Collectors to effectively coordinate on daily basis – personally as well as electronically – to ensure that the export of wheat form Pakistan from all export stations does not increase, in any case.
The ECC has decided to extend financial guarantees of the provinces and Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) to maintain and stabilise a wheat reserve of up to 6.5 million metric tonnes.
The summary for the procurement of wheat by the public sector was moved by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the ECC made a decision in light of the recommendations proposed at an eariler review meeting for the wheat purchase policy headed by the planning commission deputy chairman. That meeting (held on February 3) had recommended that the wheat procurement target be fixed at 6.57 million tonnes, PASSCO 1.30 metric tonnes, Punjab 3.5 metric tonnes, Sindh 1.3 tonnes, Khyber Paktunkhwa 0.4 metric tonnes and Balochistan .07 metric tonnes.
The committee was also apprised of the sugar stock situation. The committee was informed that sugar stock is sufficient for October 2011. The Ministry of Industries and production in its summary gave a detailed outline of the local sugar production. Up till March 15 the production remained 33,33,950 metric tonnes whereas the already stocked position is 16,846 metric tonnes. The Trading Corporation of Pakistan has the stock of 4,45,984 metric tons which make the total stock position as 25,74,610 metric tonnes.
