ISLAMABAD - The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Friday approved two months salaries (October and November) to the employees of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM).
The PSM is unable to pay to salaries to its workers from last several months, as the mill’s production is at zero level since June 2015 after Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) disconnected gas supply due to non-payment of bill worth Rs35 billion.
The top economic decisions making body of the country yesterday has given approval two months salaries to PSM’s workers, which are deprived of salaries for the past 3 months. The ECC, which was chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, also directed PSM to consider pursuing its request to National Tariff Commission for imposition of anti-dumping duties, which it had filed with the Commission sometime ago.
The ECC has also approved the proposal submitted by Ministry of States and Frontier Regions for provision of 124,000 metric tons of wheat costing Rs. 4.977 billion to TDPs in FATA and KP through WFP apparatus. Earlier, the ECC on October 29, 2015 approved the release of 64,000 tons of wheat for TDPs for the period September 2015 to December 2015, which has since been delivered to the WFP
According to the official documents, the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions argues that to continue further supply of wheat to TDPs, World Food Program has requested to arrange 124,000 MT of wheat costing Rs4.977 billion. The ministry circulated the summary to Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of National Food Security & Research that have no objection to the proposal of arrangements of 124,000 MT of wheat for provision to the WFP for the period February 2016 to December 2016.
The ECC after detailed deliberations approved a proposal of Ministry of Water and Power for initiative of installation of RLNG based power projects in the range of 100-250 MW having cumulative capacity of 1000 MW in the private sector.
On a proposal submitted by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, the ECC considered and approved an amendment in the relevant provision of the LNG Policy 2011 to ease out the technical hurdles in LNG supply chain for smooth supply of the product.
On a proposal of the Ministry of Ports & Shipping regarding grant of EPC contracts to Chinese firm(s) under the Framework agreement between Governments of Pakistan & China, the ECC constituted a Committee to examine the applicability of Rule 5 of PPRA Rules 2004.