A meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research was held on Wednesday under Chairmanship of Malik Shakir Bashir Awan, MNA, to discuss godowns/warehouses for wheat storage all over the country and wheat procurement by the PASSCO for the current year.
The federal minister for national food security and research apprised the committee that PASSCO godowns at Karachi having capacity of 17,600 mm tons were under illegal occupation of private parties for the last 22 years. Due to untiring pursuance of PASSCO, these godowns had been vacated after a protracted legal battle which was a great achievement, he added.
He further informed that Pakistan was having surplus wheat for the last three years.
The PASSCO managing director apprised the committee about the functions of PASSCO including the provision of food security at national level by maintaining strategic reserves of wheat and supply of wheat to deficit provinces like AJK, GB as well as armed forces. He further informed that the total requirement/liabilities of PASSCO during 2016-17 as approved by the ECC are 1.797 mm tones which includes 1.00 mm tones of National Strategic Reserves. He also apprised the committee that currently PASSCO’s receivables had accumulated to the alarming level of Rs 74 billion.
The committee strongly recommended that the ministry of finance should release Rs 74 billion on account of receivables of PASSCO on priority basis. The committee also recommended that a policy may be framed for the timely disposal of the surplus wheat to avoid the payment of huge amount on account of markup. The committee further recommended that the import duty on agricultural machinery may be reduced to maximum extent to marginalise the monopoly of tractor manufacturing units in Pakistan. The committee extended the period of the sub-committee to finalise its report.
The meeting was attended by Capt (R) Muhammad Safdar, Ch Iftikhar Nazeer, Mr Tahir Iqbal Ch, Syed Iftikhar-ul Hassan, Ms Shahnaz Saleem, Ms Khalida Mansoor, Ms Parveen Masood Bhatti, Pir Shafqat Hussain Jilani, Mr Faqir Sher Muhammad Bilalani, Dr Fouzia Hameed and Mr Muhammad Salman Khan Baloch, MNAs and the federal minister for national food security and research, beside senior officers from the ministry and MD PASSCO.
