At least $130 million (about Rs 22 billion) cash has been approved by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet aiming to support for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
According to the report issued on Wednesday, the meeting of ECC was chaired by the Minister for Finance and Revenue which officially approved the Aviation Division summary demanding cash support as required by Corporation (PIAC).
It came to the attention of ECC that the airline has suffered a major decline in revenues and cash flows due to epidemic and unparalleled travel bans/lockdowns imposed by various countries. Besides, the ECC also endorsed the improvement of the existing approved promising PIAC to overpower its financial challenges.
Read more: VSS availed by 2,000 PIA employees to cost government Rs 5 billion
ECC approved a total of Rs 44 billion financial aid for PIA
The ECC has approved a total of about Rs 44 billion financial support fund, a half of which about Rs 22 billion as a financial arrangement for PIA to meet its immediate liabilities and the other half to help enhance PIA’s guarantee limit by Rs 22 billion to raise financing from commercial banks.
The ECC approved the endowment of 70 MMG RLNG along with the guidelines to have a consultative session with the fertilizer manufacturers’ representatives to arrange the overall demand for urea in the country.
ECC also approved Rs 3.86 billion for Revenue Division (FBR) as a bond supporting facility to upgrade IT infrastructure in view of enlarged frequency and gravity of cyber-attacks to ensure elimination of risk to taxpayer’s data.
Additionally, the Ministry of Commerce told about the withdrawal of the circumstances of minimum export price (MEP) on the export of surgical instruments except for “single-use” surgical instruments.
After negotiation, ECC decided that necessary modifications are to be made in Export Policy Order, 2020 to reverse the condition of MEP to make exports competitive in the global market.
