Finance Minister Asad Umar summons ECC meeting today

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Asad Umar will chair a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Monday (today). 

The agenda of meeting includes a summary on gas price hike, a report on the proposed increase in Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) price, and a detailed report on circular debt, according to the sources privy to the matter.

In its previous meeting on September 10, the ECC decided to keep the gas price unchanged.

While, the Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry informed the media after the ECC meeting that the new system of subsidy on gas price will be finalized by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Moreover, the minister assured to launch a crackdown against the 70 percent hike on the price of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder.

The last ECC meeting also decided that the government will facilitate farmers with subsidies on purchase of urea as it has decided to import 100,000 tons of urea.

The 12-member ECC includes Law Minister Farogh Naseem, Petroleum Minister Ghulam Abbasi, Planning and Development Minister Khusro Bakhtiar and Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid. The committee also includes prime minister’s advisers Razak Dawood and Dr Ishrat Hussain.

In addition, six more ministers — communications, national food security, power, privatisation, statistics and water resources — are part of the ECC.