The Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet has approved increase in maximum retail price of Paracetamol products.
The ECC, which met in Islamabad on Friday, with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the chair, approved the recommendation of Drug Pricing Committee for increase rates of Paracetamol products and fixed price of Paracetamol Plain Tablet 500 mg at 2.67 rupees and Paracetamol Extra Tablet 500 mg at 3.32 rupees.
It is pertinent to mention that the forum allowed fixation of Maximum Retail Prices of 18 new drugs at the lowest as compared to the prices of same drugs in neighbouring countries, especially in India.
The ECC also allowed reduction in the prices of 20 drugs.
The ECC also approved to recover 76 billion rupees while exempting domestic consumers having consumption less than 300 units and private agriculture consumers in four months period from March to June this year to recover the mark-up charges of Power Holding Limited loans. It allowed to impose additional surcharge of one rupee per unit for the next fiscal year to recover additional mark-up charges of PHL loans not covered through the already applicable FC surcharge. These surcharges will be applicable to K-Electric consumers to maintain uniform tariff across the country.
The forum deferred the electricity bills for the month of September 2022 for commercial consumers in the flood affected areas till the next billing cycle and waived off electricity bills for the months of August and September 2022 for domestic consumers having less than 300 units consumption. A supplementary grant of 10.34 billion was also approved to cover waiver of electricity bills in flood affected areas.
Besides, the ECC approved supplementary grant of 450 million in favour of Ministry of Defence.
Source: Radio Pakistan