ECC approves two-month salaries of PSM employees

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Tuesday approved the payment of two months’ salaries to the employees of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) as Eid-ul-Azha is around the corner.

There are around 12,000 employees working in PSM, who have reportedly not been paid salaries for the past five months. The two-month salaries to be released would be around Rs760 million.

ECC meeting held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shahid Khakan Abbasi also approved to enhance the wheat subsidy up to Rs2 per kilogramme for Gilgit Baltistan by the end of the current fiscal year.

On August 11, a notification was issued stating that the prime minister would be heading the ECC meeting, instead of its then chairman — Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. The meeting decided that funds for supply of wheat would be provided on quarterly basis during harsh weather, while it would be provided on monthly basis for the remaining part of the year.

ECC also approved a proposal by the petroleum division to allocate 14.2 million metric cubic feet per day (mmcfd) gas from Sofia field to Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) owing to availability of nearest transmission network. Gas from the same block is already being supplied to SSGC.

The ECC’s meeting also approved to replace four liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) air mix projects keeping in view road access, availability of land and safety and security issues. Air mix project in Malkot, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was proposed to be replaced with a project at Balakot, a project in Forward Kahuta with Drosh, another in Chitral and Hajira, Kashmir with Beor Tehsil Kahuta and a project in Abbaspur, Kashmir with Ban, Tehsil Murree.

The government is setting up at least 60 LPG air mix projects in the areas where natural gas supply is available due to infrastructure constraints.   On re-allocation of gas from existing fields, the committee approved a proposal of petroleum division to re-allocate up to 130mmcfd gas from Kunnar Pasakhi Deep field (gas and condensate) of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited to SSGC and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on equal sharing basis. 

In 2009, ECC approved that up to 25mmcfd gas from Makori East field of MOL and 6.4 mmcfd from Makori deep field would be allocated to SNGPL for meeting the utility’s gas demand. ECC also allowed marketing of diesel oil conforming to Euro-IV and Euro-V specifications under the deregulated environment only if there was no burden on government.