KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has decided to extend the regionally competitive energy tariff (RCET) regime for the export industry in the upcoming budget to provide Rs50 billion annual subsidy to the sector, sources said on Monday.
“The authorities concerned have agreed to provide the RCET to the export industry in the next financial year,” top officials at the commerce ministry confirmed.
Due to this extension, the textile export will surge to $16.5 billion by June 2021, which will help the country to take total exports to $27 billion in the current fiscal year and $30 billion in June 2021-22. In the next financial year, textile exports alone will go up to $20 billion because of the continuation of the RCET regime, officials claimed.
Recently, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Power and Petroleum Tabish Gauhar, while speaking to a local media outlet, said that the government would have to extend the subsidy of Rs50 billion — Rs10 billion against the provision of gas at Rs6.5 per MMBTU and Rs40 billion to provide electricity at Rs7.5 per unit) in the next financial year.
He said that the power division wanted the commerce ministry to arrange for the required subsidy from the finance division on time to avoid a build-up in the circular debt.
The proposal for the subsidy came after a report by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) carried out a study that recommended the continuation of the RCET to the export industry because of its “important role in the surge of current year’s exports”.
Meanwhile, the Planning Commission proposed Rs103 billion for the energy sector for 2021-22 and Rs99 billion for the water projects, the sources in Islamabad claimed. The ministry also proposed Rs265 billion for the country’s transport and communication sector, Rs28 billion for health, Rs37 billion for higher education.
The sources further claimed that the planning commission has also proposed Rs54 billion for the merged tribal districts and Rs45 billion for Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. It further proposed Rs34 billion for the least developed areas in Sindh and Balochistan.
