The management of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has asked the Pakistan International Airlines' (PIA) authorities to clear Rs 12.1 billion outstanding dues otherwise the company would not be in a position to continue fuel supply to the national flag carrier. Sources in the Petroleum Ministry said that PIA may not be able to continue with the routine flights as it does not have money to procure fuel.
The national flag carrier is not defaulter of international suppliers, but has not settled its dues with the national OMC, PSO. "Despite continuous non-payment and default on payment commitments by PIA, PSO continued uninterrupted fuel supply to PIA. A meeting on the matter was held at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, which was attended by Managing Director (MD) PIA and MD PSO on November 6, 2014. In the meeting, MD PSO made it clear to the PIA senior management that PSO would not be able to continue uninterrupted fuel supply in case of non-payment by PIA and still the PIA has not taken any step to clear the outstanding dues," the official source informed.
"Due to this continuous trend of non-payment, PSO was compelled to inform PIA of stoppage of fuel supplies to ATR flights from Monday (November 17, 2014). In response to this, MD PIA committed payment of Rs 2 billion out of the outstanding amount of Rs 12 billion to PSO by 5:00pm, (November 18, 2014. Based on the assurance, PSO has decided to continue fuelling of all PIA flights for now," the official maintained.
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