The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet approved revised margins of oil marketing companies (OMCs) and petroleum dealers on the motor spirit (MS) and high-speed diesel (HSD).
The government has said in a statement on Wednesday, “The ECC discussed in detail and approved the proposal submitted by Ministry of Energy for an increase of OMC’s and dealers’ margin for motor spirit and high-speed diesel with effect from forthcoming revision in oil prices.”
Read more: ECC approves Rs 135 billion for second installment to IPPs
This new increased margin is the result of the country-wide strike by the petroleum dealer which was going to take place last week. The dealers were protesting against the low-profit margin and some of the companies had closed their operation for the time being.
Now the government has increased the profit, initially beginning with around one rupee per litre and in the next six months, making the mechanism that would take the profit by 4.4 percent.
The demand of the petroleum dealers was to raise the profit margin to 6 percent. At present, they are taking Rs 3.91 per litre but after the approval of the government, the petroleum dealers will get Rs 4.90 profit per litre.
The meeting of ECC also gave approval for the purchase of 175,000 tons of imported wheat by the World Food Program from PASSCO’s stock for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The statement of ECC said, “The wheat flour will complement the WFP’s food basket for distribution to the food vulnerable population in Pakistan and Afghanistan within the WFP’s commitment to eliminate hunger.”
ECC also gave the approval to include the beneficiaries of Ehsaas Kafalat Program with PMT score between 29.01 to 37 under the recent NSER survey in Ehsaas Emergency Cash Program.”
The statement said, “These beneficiaries are proposed to be provided one-time emergency cash assistance of Rs.12,000 per beneficiary on a first come first served basis.”
