ISLAMABAD, Aug 27: Four federal ministries are in a dispute on whether or not to fix the support price of rice for the current season, a senior government official told Dawn on Wednesday.

The ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) has moved a summary to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet suggesting support prices for various rice qualities. The summary, said the official, is unlikely to be approved because the finance ministry has opposed the move.

The ECC is meeting here on Thursday with Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz in the chair to review economic data and prices and availability of various essential commodities.

The sources said the Minfal has proposed a support price of Rs485 per maund for super basmati and basmati 2000, followed by Rs385 per maund for basmati rice. Similarly, support price for Irri-6 has been suggested at Rs215 and Rs230 per maund for other qualities.

The Ministry of Industries and Production and Planning Commission have supported the fixation of support price for rice while Ministries of Finance and Commerce have opposed the move.

The finance and commerce ministries are of the view that government has already come out of the support price mechanism and could not intervene into the rice business, therefore, it should be left to the open market forces.

The ECC would also review performance of Monopoly Control Authority (MCA) with special reference to recent cartelization of cement industry and rising prices of cement in the recent weeks.

The committee would also consider the implementation of drought emergency relief assistance (DERA) for which around Rs6.5 billion were allocated during the 2002-03 and 2003-04.

The ECC would also consider a report of anomaly committee and rescheduling of liabilities of the commercial banks relating to Saindak copper-gold project that has recently gone into operation.