Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Abdul Hafeez Shaikh Wednesday chaired a meeting of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and approved a mark-up subsidy for the Naya Pakistan Housing Authority.

Announcing the facilitation for the housing sector, the adviser said that mark-up subsidy would be given on bank financing for 10 years. Mark-up would remain five percent for a five marla house for a period of five years and would then be extended to seven percent for the remaining five years.

The subsidy would be given on a three to five marla house, pricing upto Rs 3.5 million. The subsidy on a 10-marla residential structure would be given if it has a value of upto Rs 6 million. The ECC approved a Rs 33 billion subsidy for low-cost housing structures.

The ECC also approved a minimum price for tobacco for the year 2020 after a recommendation from the Prices and Grade Revision Committee.

A new system was also approved for the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) and other government functionaries with Rs41.8 million approved by the ECC for it.

The meeting headed by Hafeez Shaikh also decided that the Pakistan Army would be provided 150,000 metric tonnes of wheat from PASCO during the ongoing year.

The economic-decision making body also approved the establishment of a mineral exploration company for facilitating the mining process in the Balochistan province and Rs 320 million would be provided through Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC) for the project.

Hafeez Shaikh led meeting also recommended on the use of Rs 100 billion agriculture relief package and it was decided to earmark an amount of Rs 15.7 billion from it for potassium fertilizer.