

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to finance the cost of provision of gas and electricity to all the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) out of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and withdraw provincial mark-up support and federal freight subsidy to SEZs under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet “directed the Board of Investment (BoI) to submit the case to the cabinet for withdrawal of the two additional incentive packages for SEZs under the CPEC programme — mark-up support by the provincial governments and freight subsidy by the federal government”, according to minutes of a recent meeting of the ECC.
The committee also decided that the “cost of provision of utilities — gas and electricity — to SEZs will be met through the PSDP” and directed the power division to “prepare a comprehensive plan, in consultation with provincial governments for provision of uninterrupted electricity to existing all industrial zones” and present it to the ECC within a month.