Islamabad : Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue, and Economic Affairs Dr. Shamshad Akhtar presided over a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Commerce, Industries, & Production, Mr. Gohar Ijaz, Minister for Communications, Railways, & Maritime Affairs, Mr. Shahid Ashraf Tarar, Minister for Power & Petroleum, Mr. Muhammad Ali, Minister for IT & Telecom, Dr Umar Saif, Advisor to PM on Finance, Dr. Waqar Masood, Chairman SECP, Federal Secretaries, and other senior government officials of the relevant ministries.
The meeting discussed and reviewed the performance and trends of key economic indicators including CPI of various essential items presented by Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives. The meeting decided to constitute a Core group comprising Secretary Planning, Commerce, Food Security and Industry with the mandate to present concrete proposals for monitoring and advising the ECC on prices of the essential commodities as well as maintaining the stocks of the strategic products.
The Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication submitted a summary for approval of “Telecom Infrastructure sharing Framework.” The ECC discussed in detail the first ever Telecom Infrastructure sharing framework and approved it. The ECC also approved another summary for the release of IMT spectrum for improvement of the Next Generation mobile broadband services in Pakistan. The ECC approved the constitution of an advisory committee for the release of the unsold IMT Spectrum along with its terms of reference.
A summary of Ministry of Industries & Production regarding “Change of name from M/S Tuwairqi Steel Mills LTD (TSML) to National Steel Complex LTD (NSCL)” was also considered by the Committee. The ECC gave in principle approval to the proposal, subject to further review and endorsement by the Law division.
The Committee also considered summaries of Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) & M/o Industries regarding pricing and allocation of gas for the fertiliser plants. The ECC, after detailed discussion, directed Ministry of Energy to continue supply of gas to all fertiliser plants to ensure sufficient supply of fertilisers in the market.
The committee also decided to constitute an inter-ministerial Committee with the representation of the Ministries of Finance, Planning, Commerce, Food Security, Industries, Power and energy to present recommendations on allocation and pricing of gas for the fertilizer industry.