ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: The government on Wednesday asked the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority to make funding arrangements for proposed gas import projects through increase in consumer tariff.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet presided over by Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar.

According to an official statement, the ECC approved a summary of the petroleum ministry envisaging policy guidelines for Ogra to arrange funding for the Inter-State Gas Systems Limited.

The policy guidelines also fixed expenditure for the ISGSL to be borne by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd and Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd on 51:49 per cent shareholding. The ISGCL is responsible for developing cross-border pipeline projects for import of natural gas, and is currently working on the Iran-Pakistan-India and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline projects and underground gas storage projects.

The meeting also asked the Trading Corporation of Pakistan to purchase basmati and Irri-6 rice from the market and export about one million tons of rice this year. It also asked the Pakistan Agricultural Supplies and Storage Corporation to procure paddy from farmers at market rates for price stabilisation.

The ECC also approved five independent power projects for fast-track development, including two rental projects, to add about 1,400MW of power generation capacity to come into commercial production by the end of 2009.