Rs 2.5 billion extra charged from the Sui gas consumers : Fawad Ch

Lahore : Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Ch Tuesday said the government had decided to refund Rs 2.5 billion extra charged from the Sui gas
consumers in the shape of inflated bills.

Briefing media-persons after the Federal Cabinet meeting, he said over 3.2 million Sui gas consumers were affected by over billing.

The committee constituted to probe the matter had found that the gas consumers were being over billed since the fiscal year 2016-17.

He said the inquiry was still underway and startling
revelations were expected on its  completion.

The minister said the Federal Cabinet had strongly
condemned the Christchurch terror attack, sympathized with the bereaved families and offered Fateha for the martyred. It noted that hatred against Muslims was being spread in the West in a systemic way
and stressed the need to initiate dialogue among civilizations to counter it.

Former minister Jehangir Khan Tareen gave a detailed
briefing to the cabinet in that regard.

The government, he said, decided to spend Rs 290 billion on agri development and launch 18 schemes in next five years.

He said imports of agri products had reached $ 4 billion,
including edible oil costing  $ 2 billion. The government had planned to launch a campaign for reducing the consumption of cooking oil to save precious foreign exchange, he added.

The minister said the cabinet decided to grant
independent status to the National Information Technology Board, which was at present under the administrative control of Ministry of Information Technology.

He said the cabinet also decided to shift the
Accountability Court No II from Rawalpindi to Islamabad. He said the cabinet had discussion on the unutilized government land and formed a task force in that regard.

Giving details of another meeting on the Kartarpur
corridor, he said the construction of 6.8 kilometer long corridor was underway. Indian Punjab minister Navjot Sindh Sidhu had written a letter requesting the Pakistan government to avoid construction over the land once cultivated by Baba Guru Nanak.