 Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Bowing down to the tough conditions laid out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Prime Minister Imran Khan has summoned a meeting of the federal cabinet on Thursday (tomorrow) to finalize the mini-budget. The meeting with PM Imran Khan in chair will be held tomorrow at 12 in the noon to approve Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2021. Following the approval, the Finance Amendment Bill 2021 will be unveiled in the National Assembly. The meeting will be preceded by a meeting of the PTI Parliamentary Party chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan in which members of the Assembly will be briefed on the mini-budget. Due to the tough conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the prices of petroleum products likely to go up following the passage of mini-budget to be presented by the government led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the National Assembly. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday while discussing the current demand and supply of gas in the country, directed the authorities concerned to ensure the fast-track issuance of licenses for domestic exploration for it was the cheapest source of natural gas. The prime minister also instructed the relevant departments to remove hurdles in the process of installation of new LNG terminals and virtual pipeline projects by the investors. The meeting was briefed about the demand, supply from the domestic reserves, shortfall and Import of the LNG. It was informed that the current constrained demand of gas in the country was 4700 MMCFD which increases to 6000-6500 MMCFD during the winter season. The current domestic supply amounts to 3300 MMCFD which is decreasing every year. The resulting shortfall has to be managed by importing LNG. With the current infrastructure, a shortfall of nearly 1000 MMCFD in winter arises for which multiple options are being adopted. The meeting was told that for the short term, the existing capacity of domestic terminals is being optimized and the process of issuance of virtual pipeline licenses is expedited. In addition, the installation of two new LNG terminals was underway with all bottlenecks being removed on a priority basis