August 27, 2008	Wednesday	Sha'aban 24, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet was informed on Tuesday that the government would ensure that sugar was available to consumers during Ramazan at reasonable rates.

According to an official statement, there were sufficient stocks of sugar with the Trading Corporation of Pakistan and the government would not hesitate in releasing the commodity from its stocks to keep its price under control.

The meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, noted that the prices of wheat, wheat flour, rice, vegetable oil and ghee and some pulses had started “stabilising but at an elevated level”.

“Higher CPI-based inflation in July 2008 vis-à-vis July 2007 was because of the base effect, as prices of several items were low in the same month last year.”

The committee approved operational restructuring of Pakistan International Airlines and asked its management to present a business plan in the next ECC meeting. No details of the restructuring were made public.

The meeting decided to transfer the control of Heavy Mechanical Complex to the Strategic Plan Division from Ministry of Industries.

The ECC approved monetising the tariff on domestic PTA (purified terephthalic acid) at 7.5 per cent in the form of compensatory support to its eight users. On the current international prices, the financial impact is estimated at Rs3.5 billion.

The meeting formed a committee headed by Minister for Port and Shipping Qamaruz Zaman Kaira to present a report to recover the foreign currency loans from defaulting private companies.

Another committee was also constituted to resolve the matter of all outstanding payments to the NTDC and other public sector organisations. Headed by the finance minister himself, the committee will comprise secretaries of finance, water and power and privatisation commission, Wapda chairman and managing director of Pakistan Electric Power Company.