ISLAMABAD: Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet has given a go-ahead for release of 650,000 tonnes of wheat from Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) stocks to the provincial governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan to ease out the demand and supply equilibrium in the local market.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the ECC held on Wednesday with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the chair.
The ECC took up the wheat situation in the country, particularly the rising trend in wheat prices, and approved a proposal by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research for release of 300,000 tonnes each to KP and Sindh and 50,000 tonnes to Balochistan.
The ECC also approved an amount of Rs 2.745 billion to be paid as PASSCO incidental charges at the ratio of 50:50 to be equally shared by the federal and respective provincial governments.
The latest release follows an earlier release of 250,000 tonnes of wheat to the governments of Sindh and KP governments from PASSCO stocks on an ECC decision taken in its meeting on October 2.
The PASSCO incidental charges for the previous release had also been shared at the ratio of 50:50 equally by the federal and respective provincial governments.
In its meeting held on Wednesday, the ECC was informed by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research that the PASSCO and provincial food departments had reported their stocks at the level of 6.444 million tonnes as compared to 10.093 million tonnes of the corresponding period of the last year.
However, despite the fact that the total availability of wheat was estimated at the level of 28.256 million tonnes, including the leftover stock of 3.777 million tons as compared to the national requirement of 26.91 million tons of the country, the prices of wheat and flour still showed upward trend in the local market, the ECC was told.
