ECC makes NIC mandatory for people to get sugar from USC outlets

ISLAMABAD: In order to ensure an effective monitoring and vigilance system in the sale of sugar, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has made it mandatory for the people to produce the National Identity Cards to get a pack of 2 kgs of sugar from the USC outlets. The decision was taken in a meeting of the ECC held here at the PM Secretariat here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of the Federal Minister for Finance, Shaukat Tareen. According to a press release issued by the Finance Division, the ECC also allowed the allocation of additional 16 MMCFD gas to the Pakarab Fertilizer Limited from SNGPL system from 2012 upto 2019. The ECC also decided that the Shell’s offer at 15% Brent + $ 0.50 per MMBTU, subject to further improvement in the final round of negotiations will be accepted for up to 1MTPA Medium Term supplies of 6 years and 2.5 MTPA from 7 to 20 years. The ECC was told that the overall CPI-based inflation registered decrease of 0.49 percent in December 2009 over November, 2009. The stock of wheat as on January 31, 2010 amounted to 5.9 million tons as against 1.7 million tons in the same period last year, thereby showing a higher stock of about 4.2 million tons compared with last year. The meeting was informed that the trade deficit has been improved by 29.0 percent to $ 7.0 billion in July-December 2009-10 from $ 10.0 billion in the same period last year. The ECC noted that the workers’ remittances amounted to $ 4,531.0 million in July-December 2009-10 as against $ 3,640.0 million, showing an increase of 25.0 percent over the same period last year. The Foreign exchange reserves stood at $ 14.5 billion as on February 4, 2010 - up from $ 6.4 billion on November 25, 2008.—Agencies