TLTP
ISLAMABAD
The federal cabinet has approved wheat support price at the rate of Rs1,650 per 40 kilogrammes.
This was stated by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Syed Shibli Faraz, while briefing media persons here on Tuesday about decisions taken in the cabinet meeting, which met with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair.
He said the support price will enable common people to buy flour at affordable rates as well as farmers to get the best price of their crop.
The minister said the cabinet also discussed that government subsidies should reach the deserving people, especially the poor and the middle class. He said that the Prime Minister’s special assistant on finance has been tasked to evolve a comprehensive strategy to rationalize subsidies of worth four trillion rupees so that deserving families can be benefited to the maximum. He said Ehsas and other databases will be used in this regard.
He said that the federal cabinet was briefed by SAPM on Revenue Dr Waqar Masood over the subsidies and grants provided to different sectors. Masood gave a comparison between revenue, expenditure, subsidies, and grants during the past 13 years and shared that the loan repayments have caused expenditures to go beyond the revenue.
The SAPM briefed that subsidies and grants are being provided to energy, agriculture, and other sectors, which has caused an extraordinary burden on the national exchequer. “The subsidies and grants comprise 4.5 percent of the national GDP,” he said and presented suggestions on targeted subsidies including using the Ehsaas database for giving subsidy to the poor segments.
Faraz said in view of resurgence of Covid-19 pandemic, the cabinet also called for imposing strict restrictions on mass activities, except business and wealth creation, to prevent loss of precious human lives and stalling economic activities in the country.
He said that Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, who heads the NCOC forum, briefed the cabinet meeting over the current Covid-19 situation and said that an alarming increase in the virus numbers is being witnessed.
The cabinet also approved the formation of a digital cooperation organization, an initiative of Saudi Arabia.
