ISLAMABAD: The spokesman of the Ministry of Finance has strongly rebuffed some media reports that Ramadan Package has been scaled down.
"The package is announced every year before holy month of Ramadan in order to provide relief to the consumers, he said in a statement issued here on Tuesday.
The spokesman added that traditionally, a summary on the proposed Ramadan Package is prepared by Ministry of Industries and Production and placed before the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC) for approval.
This year Ministry of Industries and Production placed the Summary before the ECC proposing a Ramadan Package of Rs. 1.4 billion.
The ECC during discussions in the meeting held on 23-05-2016 enhanced value of the package to Rs 1.75 billion in order to provide greater relief to consumers.
The spokesman further said "it is correct that an allocation of Rs. 3.0 billion has been made in the budget for the current financial year."
The allocation is meant to cater for the current year's package approved by ECC, as well as arrears of the previous years.
An amount of Rs. 770 million has already been released to USC for clearance of arrears of the years 2011, 2012 and 2013.
The balance allocation will be used for Ramadan Package 2016 and clearance of remaining arrears.
Therefore, there is no question of scaling down the Ramadan Package.
It has actually been scaled up from the previous year's level, the spokesman concluded.
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