Ijaz Kakakhel Islamabad
Keeping in view the poor mechanism of receivable, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday directed Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation Limited (PASSCO) to take bank guarantee for providing wheat to federal, provincials’ governments and other public sector departments.
Currently, the PASSCP has to receive a total of Rs49.7 billion from federal, provincials’, Pak Army and other government agencies for the sale of wheat.
Out of the total, an amount of Rs38 billion are PASSCP’s receivable from federal government and the remaining from other provinces/departments.
The PAC regretted that the PASSCO receivable were on persistent increase every year and urged for its permanent solution otherwise the authority will collapse.
Secretary National Food Security and Research Ghufran Memon told the PAC that federal government is the guarantor of provinces and other government agencies while the federal government itself has to pay Rs38 billion to PASSCO on account of wheat sale.
The PAC directed the ministry of finance to arrange funds for PASSCO in the coming federal budget and also asked the department to revise its policy and made bank guarantee mandatory for federal, provincial and other public departments for purchase of wheat from PASSCO.
