ECC approves release of grants for several ministries

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet Friday approved a number of summaries forwarded by the ministries seeking the release of millions of rupees worth of technical supplementary grants TSGs). Federal Minister for Finance Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb Friday chaired the committee meeting. Minister for Power Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, Minister for Petroleum Ali Parvez Malik, and Federal Minister for Board of Investment Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh along with chairman SECP, federal secretaries, and senior officials from relevant ministries and divisions were in attendance.

The ECC approved a summary from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, seeking a Technical Supplementary Grant (TSG) of Rs2 billion from its allocated budget of Rs5.6 billion. The approved grant will be used to meet the liabilities of payments for outstanding advertisement dues owed to the media houses.

The ECC further approved a proposal from the Ministry of Defence for a TSG amounting to Rs430 million for the execution of SAP schemes in the province of Punjab during the current financial year.

The committee also approved the allocation of Rs250 million as Government Paid-Up Capital for the operations of the Jinnah Medical Complex & Research Centre (JMC&RC) Company. This allocation will support the establishment of a state-of-the-art, 1,000-bed academic medical centre in Islamabad. However, the ECC directed the JMC&RC Company to provide a detailed breakdown of the expenditures and activities to be covered by the approved Rs250 million before seeking further allocations.

In addition, the ECC discussed a summary presented by the Finance Division regarding the phasing out of the State Bank of Pakistan’s long-term financing facility (LTFF) to Exim Bank.