ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Thursday approved four supplementary grants, including Rs5 billion for the National Disaster Mana­gement Authority (NDMA), to fight the spr­ead of coronavirus in the country on an emergency basis.

The ECC meeting, chaired by Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Hafeez Shaikh, approved three other technical supplementary grants for civil work, Fata temporarily displaced persons (TDP) emergency recovery project, and the Sustai­nable Devel­opment Goals Achievement Prog­ramme.

The approval of the supplementary grants is part of the government package to mitigate impact of the coronavirus spread in the country. The package was announced by the prime minister a couple of days ago.

The NDMA will use the technical supplementary grant to gain logistic support and the provision of different types of personal protection equipment (PPEs) against the virus like respirators and face masks.

The ECC also approved technical supplementary grants of Rs275m in favour of the Ministry of Housing and Works for capital outlay on civil works, another Rs84.352m to be provided to Nadra for Fata TDP Emergency Re­cov­ery Project, and Rs5.5bn for the Sustainable Dev­el­o­pment Goals Achie­vement Progr­amme.

On a summary of incentive proposals for the National Electric Vehicle Policy (NEVP) of the climate change ministry, the ECC formed an inter-ministerial committee, to firm up proposals in a month’s time on incentive package for NEVP.

The newly-constituted committee would be headed by Adviser to PM on Commerce, Razak Dawood. Other members include Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Special Assistant to PM on Austerity and Institutional Reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain and Special Assistant to PM on Petroleum Nadeem Babar. Deputy chairman of the planning commission and the secretaries for industry and climate change divisions are also members of the committee.

The ECC approved quarterly adjustments of tariff of K-Electric limited from July 2016 to March 2019.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2020