ECC meets today, may remove duty on refined sugar import

The Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, to meet here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, is likely to remove import duty on refined sugar and allow private parties to import sugar, it is learnt. The Ministry of Industries and Production in its hurriedly prepared summary for the ECC explained that sugar prices were skyrocketing and common man was badly affected by this unprecedented hike, sources said.
The Ministry in its summary has proposed that import duty on refined sugar should be removed and private parties be allowed, under a quota to be set by the ECC.
It was suggested that Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) may be allowed to release refined sugar immediately to bring prices down and later on import the commodity to keep the stock up to 377,000 tons. It was also suggested that duty on the import of raw sugar should be done away with.
It may be mentioned here that the Ministry of Industries and Production in its summary clarified that it was unable to seek comments of other concerned ministries due to shortage of time.
Ministry of Commerce, in one of its proposals, has suggested that demurrage charges on 212 vehicles imported by Afghan nationals from January 01 to August 08, 2004 be exempted.
The vehicles were standing at Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and an amount of Rs 10,360 per day per vehicle is piling up as demurrage charge, the ministry said.
The MoC has proposed that if the government exempts the vehicles from demurrage charges, it would strengthen brotherly relations between the two countries.
Sources said that the MoC has also proposed duty drawback on export of polyester filament yarn (PFY) and PFY based products. A month earlier this issue came under discussion in the ECC, but no final decision was taken due to non-availability of sufficient relevant data from the neighbouring countries.
The ECC would approve allocation of gas from Umar-1, associated gas field and Ali-1 gas field (Mirpur Khas block) to the power sector.
According to sources, the ECC would relax ban on taking foreign currency loans for 969 MW Neelam-Jhelum hydropower project which is ready for international bidding.