Karachi (HRNW) The Pakistan Steel Mills stopped its commercial operations in June 2015 without formulating any plane for its 14,753 employees, said the Ministry of Industries and Production in a reply submitted to the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The workforce was cut down to 8,884 in 2019, of which 2,233 are officers and 6,651 workers. The report said that the government spends Rs355 million every month in net salaries to the employees, adding that this excludes leave encashment, provident fund or gratuity.
The government has spent Rs34 billion in net salaries so far and paid Rs1.2 billion to deceased employees on compassionate grounds. “Since 2008-2009, the government has disbursed Rs58 billion to PSM five bailout packages for its survival,” according to the report. Even the SSGC was told to not disconnect its supply to the mill even though it owes the gas company Rs22 billion.
It said that an expert group was formed in 2018 to work on the revival of the mills. It recommended that a public-private partnership should be established to “raise necessary capital investment and obtain technical expertise for the revival of the mills”. It even said that the government should appoint a technical advisory consortium to design a mechanism for the transparent international bidding process.
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