ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce has decided to recommend Rs3,000/40-kg as Minimum Support Price (MSP) of wheat for 2022, with the direction that the price should be announced by September 2022.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the committee, presided over by Raza Rabbani Khar, after discussions with the representatives of provincial governments.
The representative of Food Department Sindh Government informed the Committee that he has been directed by the Chief Minister that the provinces MSP of Rs4,000/40-kg, KP government conveyed Rs 3,0003,500/40-kg whereas the representative of Balochistan government also supported Rs3,000/40-kg.
The representative of Punjab government who joined the meeting on zoom stated that meeting that the Secretary Food is in a meeting with Chief Secretary on this issue, adding that provincial government will convey its viewpoint soon.
The representative of Ministry of National Food Security and Research informed the Committee that the Minister has held meeting with the provincial governments on August 26, 2022 and urged them to send their recommendations about MSP of wheat as early as possible. He maintained that the landed cost of imported wheat is Rs 4200/40 kg at Karachi Port.
The Committee deferred “The Trade Organizations (Amendment Bill), 2022,” after Committee members raised objection on enhancement of tenure of Chambers representative to two years from one year, saying with amendment term of some provinces and Federal Capital including AJ&K and Gilgit Baltistan will come after 12 years.
Secretary Commerce, Sualeh Ahmad Faruqui suggested that the representatives of FPCCI and other key chambers be invited to hear their viewpoint to make progress on this issue. The Committee agreed on some of the amendments proposed by the Commerce Ministry.
The Standing Committee unanimously approved “the Anti-Dumping Duties (Amendment) Bill 2022” which was meant to facilitate foreign aided projects as the previous government had imposed duties on machinery of a hospital in Gwadar gifted by China and equipment granted by Saudi Arabia for a hospital in KP.
Commerce Ministry has proposed following Amendment of Section 2, Act XIV of 2015: in the Anti-Dumping Duties Act, 2015(XIV of 2015) called as the said Act, in section 2, after clause (h), the following new clause shall be inserted namely “foreign grant-in-aid projects, means grants made to the Government of Pakistan under section 7 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2019.”
Amendment of section 51, Act XIV of 2015: in the said Act, in section 51, in sub-section (1) (a) in clause (c) in the proviso, for full stop at the end, a semi colon shall be substituted;(b) in clause (d) for full stop at the end, a semi colon and the word ”or” shall be substituted and (c) after the omitted clause (e) the following new clause shall be added namely “(ea) will not be levied on imports that are to be used as inputs in products destined solely for export or for use in the foreign grant-in-aid projects and are covered under any scheme exempting customs duties for exports or foreign grant-in-aid projects under the Customs Act, 1969(IV of 1969).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed.