Economic Coordination Committee okays mechanism for urea pricing

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Tuesday sanctioned Rs250 million in additional funds for the Intelligence Bureau and approved a mechanism for basket price for imported and local urea that would make costlier the key agricultural ingredient by Rs160-170 per bag. The meeting of the ECC presided over by Caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar also approved about Rs3.67 billion in grants for the Federal Directorate of Immunisation and Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF). “The ECC approved the mechanism for weighted average price with the direction to National Fertiliser Marketing Ltd (NFML) for ensuring reasonable price for urea and Ministry of Industries & Production to provide oversight to the whole process”, said an official statement. The Ministry of Industries, NFML and local urea manufacturers would now work out the final sale price based on the mix of local production and imported fertiliser including other expenses. Therefore, the minimum retail price (MRP) that currently ranges between Rs3,600 to Rs3,980 per 50kg bag would go up by Rs160 to Rs170 to Rs3,770 to Rs4,100 per bag.