ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday decided to import one million tonnes of wheat amid uncontrolled rising prices in the market.
The decision was reached at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, presided over by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, which was called urgently on a single-point agenda in view of the alarming situation.
While virtually presiding over the meeting, the minister also constituted a steering committee to take urgent steps to open letters of credit for wheat imports within 12 hours, an official statement said.
“The steering committee will, inter alia, do the need assessment and devise an operational mechanism with reference to the proposal of Wheat import and demand of provinces”, the statement said.
An informed source said a need assessment for imports had already been made at the Federal Wheat Board a day earlier. The steering committee will monitor the import and tendering process. The provinces have demanded about 2.2 million tonnes of wheat in view of shortage in the market, resulting in wheat price going over Rs150 per kg from Rs125 a week earlier due to mismanagement in procurement from farmers.
To meet provincial needs, about 1.2m tonnes old stocks of defunct Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) would be provided to provinces while one million tonnes would be imported through state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan.
The wheat board led by Food Security Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain had already decided a day earlier that the provincial governments would provide back-to-back LCs against the imports. In the event of any shortfall in payments for imported wheat, the federal government would deduct the amount from the provincial share of the National Finance Commission Award.
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