ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee has given a go-ahead to proposals for increase in the prices of paracetamol tablets (used as painkillers) and imposing additional surcharge on electricity consumers for the fiscal year 2023-24.

“The ECC after discussion approved the proposal to recover Rs76 billion while exempting non-ToU [Time of Use] domestic consumers having consumption ≤ 300 units and private agriculture consumers in four months period from March 2023 to June 2023 to recover the markup charges of PHL loans and allowed to impose an additional surcharge of Rs1/unit for FY 2023-24 to recover additional markup charges of PHL loans not covered through the already applicable FC surcharge,” said the statement issued by the Finance Division on Friday.

The development comes hours after Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced the government’s decision to introduce a new finance bill under which new taxes of Rs170 billion would be imposed to comply with the International Monetary Fund demands.

The ECC’s decision was taken after the energy ministry presented a summary related to the refinancing of Power Holding Limited (PHL)’s debt and a surcharge to recover markup payments.

The above surcharges would be applicable to K-Electric consumers to maintain uniform tariffs across the country, the committee said. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar presided over the meeting.

Repayment of principal

The ECC also deferred the PHL’s principal installments payable in respect of Rs283.287 billion for a period of two years from the date of execution of fresh facilities and directed the Finance Division to issue a “government guarantee” for repayment of principal as well as interest/fees, etc for the fresh facilities of Rs283.287 billion.

The committee also considered and approved the proposals contained in another summary of the energy ministry regarding the recovery of staggered fuel charges adjustment applicable for the months of August and September 2022.

“The ECC 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 the non- ToU domestic consumers having ≤ 300 units consumption,” it said, adding that the committee also approved an additional supplementary grant of Rs10.34 billion to cover waiver of electricity bills in the flood-hit areas.

The ECC also approved in principle a technical supplementary grant of Rs450 million in favour of the defence ministry.

Paracetamol rates

The Economic Coordination Committee has fixed the price of a paracetamol plain tablet 500mg at Rs2.67 and a paracetamol extra tablet 500mg at Rs3.32.

The decision was taken during a meeting, presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday. It was part of the summary of the health ministry on the maximum retail price (MRP) of paracetamol products that were approved by the ECC.

Currently, the price of a 10 paracetamol (panadol) tablet strip of 500mg stands at Rs23.50, according to the dawaai.pk (a local online medicine website). It means the cost of a single tablet is Rs2.35.

The ECC also allowed the fixation of maximum retail prices (MRPs) of 18 new drugs as recommended by the Drug Pricing Committee (DPC). “The prices of these 18 new drugs are at the lowest as compared to the prices of same drugs in neighbouring countries especially in India,” it said, “the ECC also approved the recommendation of DPC for a reduction in MRPs of 20 drugs.”