Grant to pay off ad dues of media houses: ECC clears Rs2bn TSG for information ministry

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet met on Friday under the chairmanship of the Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Power, Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, Minister for Petroleum, Ali Parvez Malik, Federal Minister for Board of Investment, Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh along with the chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), federal secretaries and senior officials from relevant ministries and divisions.

During the meeting, the ECC considered and approved a summary from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, seeking a technical supplementary grant (TSG) of Rs2 billion from its allocated budget of Rs5.6 billion.

ECC approves phasing out of SBP’s Rs330bn LTFF to Exim Bank

The approved grant will be used to meet the liabilities of payments for outstanding advertisement dues owed to media houses.

The ECC further approved a proposal from the Ministry of Defence for a TSG amounting to Rs430 million for the execution of SAP schemes in the province of Punjab during the current financial year.

The committee also approved the allocation of Rs250 million as government paid-up capital for the operations of the Jinnah Medical Complex and Research Centre (JMC&RC) Company.

This allocation will support the establishment of a state-of-the-art, 1,000-bed academic medical centre in Islamabad.

However, the ECC directed the JMC&RC Company to provide a detailed breakdown of the expenditures and activities to be covered by the approved Rs250 million before seeking further allocations.

In addition, the ECC discussed a summary presented by the Finance Division regarding the phasing out of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)’s long-term financing facility (LTFF) to Exim Bank.

The ECC decided that the SBP’s LTFF portfolio of PKR 330 billion would be phased out to the Exim Bank, with an allocation of PKR 1.001 billion through a TSG to meet the LTFF subsidy requirement for the new portfolio for FY 2025.

Finally, the ECC approved a summary from the Finance Division for a TSG of Rs24.556 million (equivalent to USD 87,671.21 at an exchange rate of Rs280.1/USD) to Mrs Lia Bomba of JAED Textile (Pvt) Ltd, Sydney, Australia, in compliance with the specific instructions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan dated 19th March 2025.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025