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ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet Tuesday approved the Ministry of Energy's proposal for revision of prices of petroleum products on fortnightly basis instead of the existing monthly basis from August 1, 2020 and allowed import of 300,000 tonnes of sugar.

The ECC meeting presided over by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh gave go-ahead to a proposal by the Ministry of Industries and Production for import of up to 300,000 tonnes of refined white sugar to maintain buffer stocks and prevent any shortage of sugar in the coming months before the start of the next crushing season.

The ECC decided to adopt a revised pricing methodology for motor gasoline and high-speed diesel on a fortnightly basis, based on Platts average, in view of its advantages for ensuring fair competition, alignment of margins with international pricing trend, and smoothing out of volatility and distortions because of purchasing dates of one oil marketing company (OMC), the Pakistan State Oil (PSO).

The revision of oil prices on fortnightly basis, coming into effect from August 1, 2020, subject to endorsement from the federal cabinet, would also allow for planning for three months ahead with refineries and OMCs, better inventory management, better reporting of sales and enforcement of stock requirements, transparency and visibility of prices and reduced dependence on one OMC.

As per the existing system, the prices of petroleum products are determined by allowing refineries to fix and announce the ex-refinery sale prices on a monthly basis subject to the condition that the ex-refinery price of the petroleum products cannot be more than the PSO's average actual landed import price of previous months.

The ECC also allowed import of up to 300,000 metric tonnes of white sugar through a mode of procurement and other modalities to be decided by a three-member committee comprising secretary Industries and Production, secretary Commerce and secretary Finance.

The ECC also asked the Committee to seek input from the Law Division on the preferred mode of procurement and report to the ECC in its next meeting.

On a proposal by the Finance Division, the ECC approved up-gradation of Habib Bank Limited representative office in Beijing to branch and remittance of RMB 300 million as capital of proposed branch from Pakistan.

The ECC also allowed exemption from the Re-lending Policy of the government of Pakistan a proposal by the Ministry of Climate Change for seeking AFD loan of US $20 million as part of Emergency Assistance for Fight against COVID-19 Pandemic for strengthening health workforce capacity, adopting infection minimisation measures and supporting implementation of the COVID-19 National Action Plan across Pakistan.

The ECC also considered and approval a technical supplementary grant of Rs340 million for the operationalisation of the Swat Motorway.

The ECC also discussed and approved a proposal by the Ministry of Energy for third-party access to the LNG terminals to use excess capacity or government contracted-unutilised capacity.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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