Private sector given green signal to import wheat, ECC to monitor imports, price hike.

ISLAMABAD -- The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Monday gave go ahead to the private sector to import wheat to control prices of wheat and flour in the market and ensure availability of these commodities at reasonable price across the country throughout the year.

The ECC meeting, chaired by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, also decided not to restrict the import of wheat to any limit by the private sector and further decided to monitor the situation on monthly basis to ensure availability of wheat and flour in all parts of the country at a reasonable price.

According to the ECC decision, the provincial governments to be requested to announce their 'Wheat Release Policy' immediately, while Punjab province would release 900,000 tons of wheat to flour mills of the province during next two months at a release price as proposed by the Punjab government in order to prevent surge in price of wheat/flour as proposed by Punjab.

In addition, the Singh government would also be requested to announce their policy; PASSCO to assess the immediate requirement of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and improve supply wheat as per agreed targets.

The ECC decided that movement of wheat would be facilitated between Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa/Balochistan while overall free movement of wheat should be ensured across the border and to ensure movement across districts and provinces.

The ECC decided that private wheat importers may be facilitated and arrangements between importers and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa /Balochistan should also be arranged and calculate the impact of subsidy for the import (if any) while import of wheat by private sector be allowed and the situation be watched on monthly basis. The financial implications of import/non-imports by private sector should also be assessed.

According to ECC decision, if there is no import by Private sector, then the Government should import wheat itself while the monitoring and supply provisions would be improved to ensure availability of wheat at shortage points and other market imperfections unconnected to supply and demand of wheat/flour should also be looked at.

Focus on inter-relation between wheat and Atta and try to increase conversion rate from wheat to Atta; check the cross-border movement of Atta to ensure that Atta doesn't flow out to Afghanistan and points of exit and develop a group for longer term strategy for the whole year and also for...