Big relief for SMEs and unemployed labourers in Pakistan: ECC

Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), chaired a meeting today to design relief packages of hard-hit individuals and firms by Coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19). After the meeting, Federal Minister for Industries & Production, Hammad Azhar addressed a press conference. In which he announced that ECC has approved packages for unemployed labourers and Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of the country. As the ECC members think they are hard hit by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Pakistan.

Addressing to the press conference, Azhar said that the packages will be further discussed with the federal cabinet tomorrow for final approval.

Discussing to the labourer package that has been designed and approved by ECC, Mr Azhar said that Rs. 75 billion will be distributed among the daily wagers who are severely hit by the lockdown amid COVID-19. The data of these labourers will be collected and maintained in the portal under the collaboration of government Ehsaas programme and Ministry of Industries & Production. A portal will be launched on both the platforms which will allow individuals to register themselves.

After registration, the individuals will be verified, and eligible ones will, therefore, be given Rs. 12000 in the instalments as a compensation package due to the current situation amid COVID-19. The detail of the package will also be uploaded on Ehsaas program, and Ministry of Industries & Production websites after it gets approval from the federal cabinet.

In the board meeting of ECC, it has also come under consideration that the owners of SMEs have also been affected by the lockdown amid COVID-19. Thus, a package has also been designed and approved by the ECC to bear some of their losses.

Mr Azhar said that the government will pay the electricity bills of the SMEs for up to three months. He further elaborated that the electricity bills will be paid for those consuming 5 KW (Commercial customers) OR 70 KW (Industrial customers). Azhar added that this package will benefit more than 3.5 million SMEs owners.

Minister added that both the packages can benefit 10.7 million households out of a total 60 million households all around the country. The amount of these both the packages will be taken from the Prime Minister’s COVID-19 Relief Package of Rs. 200 billion. It has yet been approved by the ECC chaired by the special advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance & Revenues Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaik. These packages will further be discussed in the federal cabinet meeting led by Prime Minister Imran Khan tomorrow. Thus, the final decision will be made after the cabinet’s approval.