Economic Coordination Committee at its meeting chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad on Friday approved a technical supplementary grant of five billion rupees for the conduct of the seventh population census in the country.

Federal Board of Revenue presented a summary on increase in the rate of sales tax on HOBC. It was conveyed that the rates of Sales Tax on petroleum products were reduced to zero earlier this year which put pressure on efforts to achieve revenue targets.

Therefore, the Economic Coordination Committee allowed to increase in petroleum levy from thirty rupees up to fifty rupees per liter on RON 95 and above with effect from November 16. It was noted that this is a luxury good being consumed by wealthy consumers in expensive vehicles.

Earlier, the ECC on November 1 formally decided to import 300,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia on a government-to-government (G2G) basis and approved a 63 percent increase in commission to oil marketing companies (OMCs) on the sale of petroleum products.

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The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

Regarding the import of wheat, the Ministry of Commerce presented a summary of the procurement of wheat from Russia on G2G basis. It said the M/s Prodintorg — a state-owned enterprise of the Russian Federation had offered a supply of 300,000 tonnes of specified milling wheat at the rate of $372 per tonne for shipment to Pakistan between Nov 1 to Jan 15, 2023.

The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) confirmed that the Russian wheat was in line with the specifications of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. It also reported that the bank details of M/s Prodintorg had been verified and confirmed that it was not an internationally sanctioned entity as of Oct 31, 2022.