ECC approves Release of Unsold IMT Spectrum
Staff Report
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has approved the release of unsold IMT spectrum for the improvement of the next-generation mobile broadband services in Pakistan.
The Ministry of Telecom and IT submitted a summary for approval.
The economic decision making body approved formation of an advisory committee to work out a mechanism for the release of the unsold IMT Spectrum along with its terms of reference.
Federal Finance Minister Dr. Shamshad Akhtar chaired a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet. Artificial Intelligence: ChatGPT, AI Tools and Futuristic Perspective
The telecom companies and the government have been in a row over the fee in dollars rather than in rupee against selling spectrum by the latter.
The telecom companies have been insisting on selling spectrum by charging fee in rupee instead of dollar.
How, this issue has not been resolved so far?
The other issues include high taxes in the telecom sector that has been a concern for the last several years.
The Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication submitted a summary for approval of the “Telecom Infrastructure Sharing Framework.”
The ECC discussed in detail the first-ever Telecom Infrastructure sharing framework and approved it.
The meeting discussed and reviewed the performance and trends of key economic indicators including CPI of various essential items presented by the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives.
The meeting decided to constitute a Core group comprising Secretary Planning, Commerce, Food Security, and Industry with the mandate to present concrete proposals for monitoring and advising the ECC on prices of the essential commodities as well as maintaining the stocks of the strategic products.
A summary of the Ministry of Industries & Production regarding the “Change of name from M/S Tuwairqi Steel Mills LTD (TSML) to National Steel Complex LTD (NSCL)” was also considered by the Committee. The ECC gave in principle approval to the proposal, subject to further review and endorsement by the Law division.
The Committee also considered summaries of the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) & M/o Industries regarding pricing and allocation of gas for the fertiliser plants.
The ECC, after a detailed discussion, directed the Ministry of Energy to continue the supply of gas to all fertilizer plants to ensure a sufficient supply of fertilizers in the market.
The committee also decided to constitute an inter-ministerial Committee with the representation of the Ministries of Finance, Planning, Commerce, Food Security, Industries, Power and energy to present recommendations on allocation and pricing of gas for the fertilizer industry.
