Pakistan Approves Emergency Wheat Import Amid Soaring Prices
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has approved an urgent import of one million tonnes of wheat to address severe shortages in the market. Wheat prices have skyrocketed above Rs150 per kg, prompting provinces to seek a total of 2.2 million tonnes. The ECC meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, set up a steering committee to quickly open letters of credit for imports within 12 hours.
The committee will conduct a need assessment and work out an operational mechanism for wheat imports in line with provincial demand. To meet the requirement, one million tonnes will be imported through the state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan, while 1.2 million tonnes from old stocks of the defunct Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation will be released to the provinces.
The steering committee has also been tasked with monitoring the import and tendering process. If there is any payment shortfall on imported wheat, the federal government will recover the amount from the provinces' share under the National Finance Commission Award.