ISLAMABAD, Feb 24: The Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC) on Tuesday approved government guarantees to the Pakistan Steel Mills to arrange a Rs2.5 billion bridge financing from the banks.
The ECC in its meeting held here on Tuesday, was informed that Pakistan Steel Mills was in the process of finalizing plans to be listed on the Stock Exchange to create transparency and improve its corporate governance.
The ECC noted with satisfaction that Pakistan Steel posted a profit of Rs1.2 billion last year which is likely to rise to Rs2 billion this year. Pakistan Steel Mills has prepaid loans of around Rs11 billion and its sales have increased to Rs23 billion.
The ECC was also approved, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Industries, to establish Investment Facilitation Centres at important cities to provide one-window facility to the investors.
Initially, the centres would be set up in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta. These would provide coordinated services under one roof for completing various formalities related to provincial and federal governments and would be undertaken by the Board of Investment.
The ECC also expressed satisfaction that the Gwadar Seaport Project was ahead of its construction schedule and would be completed before time. It endorsed the payment mechanism so far used and desired that the mechanism may continue till completion of the contract.
The ECC was also briefed about the plans to effectively connect Gwadar Port through road network with the rest of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
The ECC approved proposal of the Planning and Development Division to participate in World Expo 2005 at Aichi, Japan. The Expo would provide an opportunity to Pakistan for image building, promote trade, investment and culture abroad.
The meeting also approved in principle the reduction of custom duty on import of phosphatic fertiliser plants from 10 per cent to 5 per cent. The ECC also agreed to examine similar duty reduction for other capital equipment in the next budget.
To check illicit trade of vegetable ghee and cooking oil and their main raw materials, the meeting decided to delete these items from DTRE regime. The decision would improve supply of vegetable ghee/cooking oil and stabilize their prices in the local market.
The meeting also allowed export of livestock to continue subject to NOC from Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The export of livestock will exclude poultry and animals for meat purposes will only be allowed to be exported.
The quota of export of animals will be restricted to ten thousand large animals each month on first come first served basis. A one- time NOC will be issued for 500 large animals, 1500 sheep and goats and 50 camels per application or less as the case many be. MINFAL will continue to monitor prices of mutton and beef to intervene in the export regime if the need arose.
ECC noted that exports during July-January 2003-04 stood at over $6.9 billion as against US $ 6.1 billion during the corresponding period of last year registering an increase of 13.5 percent.
Imports during the same period were over $7.9 billion as compared to $6.8 billion in the corresponding period of last year registering an increase of 16.2 per cent.
The import of machinery increased by 23.1 per cent indicating increased industrial and economic activity in the country. The ECC also noted that gross foreign exchange reserves are around $12.5 billion, the revenue collection from July to January 2003-04 increased by 14.9 per cent and was Rs. 274 billion.
The meeting was informed that off-shore oil exploration was promising and would considerably increase production of local oil and reduce import bill.