ECC greenlights import of 160,000 metric tons of fertilizers

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has greenlighted the import of 160,000 metric tons of fertilizers, ARY News reported on Friday.

The stocks of urea will be procured from China and Azerbaijan on a government-to-government (G2G) basis through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP).

It was recommended to import 125,000 metric tons of urea from China and 35,000 MT of fertilizers from Azerbaijan to meet the demand.

The decision was taken in the ECC session presided over by the Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar.

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The Ministry of Industries and Production submitted a summary on the procurement of 200K MT Urea and shared that the ministry has negotiated on various options including import from Chinese firms who have committed to supply the negotiated quantity of urea fertilizer at the lowest rate, according to the press statement.

The ECC further directed TCP to explore feasible options for the import of the remaining quantity of fertilizers to meet the strategic reserves of 200,000 MT.

Moreover, the committee considered a summary submitted by the Ministry of Energy, Petroleum Division on High-Speed Diesel (HSD)/Gas Oil premiums.

Considering the increasing demand for HSD in the country, the ECC recommended that PSO’s weighted average premium (KPC & Spot) may be applied for HSD price computation as per federal government applicable policy guidance and in case of higher HSD premium paid by importing OMCs other than PSO, the differential of premium will be computed in the price.