October 07, 2008	Tuesday	Shawwal 7, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: The Economy Monitoring Committee has finalised natural gas load management programme for winter which gives priority to households and commercial sector over industrial sector.

The EMC, which met on Monday with Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar in the chair, was informed that the industrial sector would be asked to observe a weekly holiday for saving energy.

The programme will now be presented to the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet.

A petroleum ministry official told Dawn that an agreement had been reached with the textile sector to reduce gas consumption during peak season.

The programme will protect domestic consumers from the impact of gas shortfall that may exceed 700 million metric cubic feet per day (mmcfd) while the industrial sector will bear the major brunt of gas deficit.

According to the ministry, gas consumption in December will be around 2567 mmcfd.

The petroleum ministry official said that the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited would supply 355 mmcfd to fertiliser companies from this month till March next year when there would be an average gas shortfall of 676 mmcfd.

RICE CROP: The ministry of food agriculture and livestock told the EMC that a bumper basmati crop of 6.2 million tons was expected that would adequately meet domestic requirements and keep exports at last year’s level.

The ministry proposed early fixing of guaranteed minimum price for the new rice crop after the ECC approval to provide yield-based incentives to farmers.

The ministry of industry informed the meeting that the third shipment of 24,000 tons of fertiliser had arrived in Karachi and that stock position was satisfactory. The stocks were being released from Karachi to the National Fertiliser Marketing Ltd and Utility Stores throughout the country.