July 29, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 28, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 28: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet has accorded conceptual approval of revamping and commercializing the aerial wing of the plant protection department whose only six out of 20 planes were currently operational.

Briefing newsmen after presiding over a meeting of the ECC on Monday, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said the government had also withdrawn a notification that required the banks to report to the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) the names of those earning more than Rs10,000 profit on deposits.

He said the ministry of food and agriculture had submitted a plan for revamping and commercializing the aerial wing of the plant protection department.

He said the ECC had invited comments of the Pakistan International Airlines and the Army aviation wing whether new aircraft could be purchased because some of the planes were unserviceable and some of them could be refurbished.

He said the ECC had directed to come back with a plan so that it could be ascertained as to how much flying hours were required to meet the requirements.

The minister said only six out of the 20 planes were currently operational, but did not give the cost of revamping the fleet.

Mr Aziz said that the ECC constituted a four-member committee, led by secretary information technology and comprising additional secretary finance, deputy chairman planning commission and chairman national telecommunication corporation, to finalize a tariff for leasing out Paksat transponders to new television channels and other parties.

He said the ECC had also recommended to hire some specialized company to market the transponders.

The ECC had also write off Rs32 million tax claims on two units which were privatized. They included Ravi Engineering and Textile Machinery Limited.

He said the ministry also approved allocation of 270 mmcfd of natural gas from three gas fields to Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited.

These included 160 mmcfd from Qadirpur, 30 mmcfd from Block No. 20 in Shikarpur and 80 mmcfd from Mubarik gas field.

He said the ECC was informed by the State Bank of Pakistan governor that non-performing loans (NPL) of the commercial banks had drop from 27 per cent of total loan portfolio in 1995 to 11.75 per cent at present.

He did not respond to a question whether loans obtained by his party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had also been written off and said under the new regulations all the banks were required to publish all such record in their balance sheets.

He said the meeting reviewed the supply of essential commodities and noted with satisfaction that stocks of all essential items including food and oil were at comfortable level.

He said the meeting was informed that 19.2 million tons wheat production was sufficient to meet the requirement, and that for the first time, the farmers received the control price of around Rs300 per maund.

He said 1.9 million tons of wheat was exported during the period May 1, 2002, to July 20, 2003, and the country was at present a wheat exporter.

He said the CPI during June in the current year stood at 3.1 per cent against a target of four per cent.