| Hammad Azhar says 95pc of existing employees to be laid off in phases with all financial benefits | Invites Sindh govt to take part in bidding process for the mill 
| Control of the mill will be handed over to private partner 

ISLAMABAD  -  The federal government yesterday reiterated to run the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) through Public-Private Partnership for which 95 percent of the existing 9500 employees would be terminated in different phases after paying them monetary benefits.

Addressing a press conference, Federal Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar said that the incumbent government would terminate 95 percent of the all 9500 employees of the PSM in different phases by paying monetary benefits. On an average, every sacked employee was estimated to receive Rs2.3 million. In the first phase, the government has paid around Rs10 billion to 4500 sacked employees. The PSM on Friday last had lain off over 4,500 of its employees.

He said that the government would have to take tough decisions for economic stability. He said that annual losses of Public Sector Entities had exceeded the defence budget of the country. On a question, the federal minister for industries and production has invited the Sindh government to take part in the bidding process of PSM for taking control of it. The Sindh government could take control of the Mill by offering highest bid, he added.

Sharing the recent history of the PSM, Hammad Azhar said that the Mill was in profit of Rs8 billion in 2008. However, later it went into losses in 2008 in the PPP’s tenure as the PSM losses surged to Rs100 billion and the capacity was taken down to 40 percent. Later, in the PML-N’s tenure, the PSM capacity was initially down to 20 percent and then to 6 percent. Later, the Mill was closed down in 2015.

The minister said that the federal government is paying salaries and pensions to the employees of closed Mill from the last five and half years.

He informed that the federal government had paid Rs35 billion on salaries of the closed PSM. Meanwhile, the loans and liabilities had increased to Rs230 billion and losses to Rs200 billion. He further informed that the federal government has to pay Rs750 million for salaries and pensions of the PSM employees. Recently, the federal government had cleared the pensions of PSM employees of 2013 and beyond, which cost Rs24 billion. 

He said that successive governments had given bailout packages worth of Rs92 billion in last ten to fifteen years to the PSM. The successive governments could have saved billion of rupees if they have taken timely decisions regarding the PSM, he added.

Hammad Azhar said that the incumbent government wants to run the PSM with private partnership. He said it will be our effort that an international player enters into a partnership with the government. 

He also clarified that the management control will be handed over to the private party. He said that private investors would run the PSM with upgraded machinery and trained staff.

The minister said that the Privatization Commission is working on transactions structure of the PSM. The privatization process would be transparent and according to the rules and law. He explained that only the core Steel Mills operation would be privatized and not the other land of the entity. He said the Pakistan Steel Mills has 19,000 acres of land, out of which there will be a lease agreement on twelve hundred to thirteen hundred acres of land to run operations of the Steel Mills.