Pakistan Steel Mills Employees to be Paid After ECC Okays Rs 1.1 Billion

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has approved Rs1.140 billion for payment of three months salaries (Jan-March, 2018) to the employees of Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation (PSMC).

A meeting of the ECC presided over by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi considered a proposal of Privatization Commission for payment of salaries to employees of PSM, who, according to sources, have been staging protest against non-payment of salaries. The meeting was informed that as the Ramzan has fallen and Eid is approaching, there was need to make payment of salaries to the PSM employees.

The meeting also considered a proposal for introducing necessary amendments in the relevant laws for the purpose of ensuring tax exemptions at the Gwadar Port and Gwadar Free Zone and constituted a committee to remove any anomalies in the proposed amendments.

The ECC while considering the issue of allocation of site to private LNG developers for establishment of LNG Terminal, decided that only those sites at Port Qasim would be allocated for the establishment of LNG Floating Terminal which have been declared safe after undertaking Quantitative Risk Assessment.

The meeting approved a proposal to allocate 35 MMCFD Mari shallow gas and 40 MMCFD of Mari Deep gas to Pakarab Fertilizer Ltd (PFL) for optimal utilization of available installed capacity and to encourage indigenous production of fertilizers and lesson reliance on imported urea.

In order to address the issue of disparity in the sale price and the revenues of SNGPL and SSGCL, the ECC constituted a committee comprising members from Petroleum Division, OGRA, Finance, and Planning, Development & Reforms Division to examine the option of replacing the weighted average cost gas (WACOG) equalization arrangement with a new arrangement of weighted average sale price (WASP) equalization arrangement. The committee will examine all aspects of natural gas sale pricing mechanism and would submit its recommendation to the cabinet within three months.

The ECC also approved five localities for SNGPL and six for SSGCL for setting up LPG air mix plants for the purpose of supply of gas to the residents. The SNGPL localities include Bisham, Upper Dir, Kana, Alpuri, and Narrar. The SSGCL localities include Dalbandin, Taftan, Zheri, Bekar, Kunri and Killi Balozai.