ECC approves to import 100,000 tons urea

ISLAMABAD: Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Wednesday approved import of one hundred thousand tons of urea in order to meet the fertilizer requirements of the farmers.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the ECC, held here today in Islamabad with Finance Minister Asad Umar in the chair.

The Ministry of Industries and Production was directed to review the price mechanism of fertilizer industry for ensuring provision of urea to farmers at cheaper rates.

The committee also decided to allow additional import of Urea in case of conversion of gas supply from fertilizer plans to power producers during the summer.

The ECC, in its last meeting, had approved supplementary grant amounting to Rs1795 million for the temporarily dislocated persons from North Waziristan in the wake of Operation Zarb-e-Azb.

The ECC meeting was chaired by Asad Umar. The committee was briefed by the officials of Water Resource Division (WRD) on the proposed arrangement for settling the electricity tariff and water usage charges issues with Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

According to a statement released from the ministry, the committee noted that the proposed arrangement, where AJK would set up its own DISCO and would receive water usage charges at the enhanced rate of Rs1.10/ kwh was based on the principle of equality and endorsed the same.