Relief package for small industries to be presented in ECC today

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Ministry of Industries and Production will present phase-one of relief package for small industries at the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for approval on Monday (tomorrow ). In a series of tweets today, Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar expressed the confidence that millions of small businesses and industries will take benefit from this package after its approval from the ECC and the cabinet. The minister further said that his ministry is also working on a collateral free financing for SME's for phase two of the relief package. He informed that phase two will include targeted and prioritized relief measures for sectors mostly hit by coronavirus (COVID-19). The total number of coronavirus infection cases in the country has reached 12,723. These include Punjab 5378, Sindh, 4232, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1793, Balochistan 722, Islamabad Capital Territory 235, Gilgit-Baltistan 308, and Azad Kashmir 55 cases. According to National Command and Operation Center, so far 2,866 patients of Coronavirus have been recovered, while 269 died (Sindh: 78, Punjab: 81, KP: 93, ICT: 03, Balochistan: 11 and GB: 03) and 78 others are in a critical condition. 144,365 tests have been conducted since outbreak of the pandemic. Local transmission is 81 percent and foreign travel 19 percent. The government has made ready 717 hospitals with Covid facilities with 3389 patients admitted across the country.