Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) Arif Sheikh on Monday clashed with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) National Industrial Parks Development & Management Company (NIP), Mudassar Iqbal for allegedly misstating facts about the sale of hundreds of acres of NIP land sans agreement between the two organisations. This rowdy scene was witnessed at a meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production presided over by Senator Hadayatullah when the issue of NIP land sale in 2017 came under discussion. Additional Secretary Incharge Ministry of Industries and Production, Mian Asad Haya ud-Din was seen to be visibly nervous at the brawl between the officials of the two MOI&P organisations at a public forum.
"Nothing is finalised with respect to land sold in 2017. We are not accepting the amount NIP is offering because the market price of land is far higher than what is being cited by NIP. Our Board has not yet finalised the market price of land sold in 2017," said Arif Sheikh. He said PSM Board will finalise the market price of land in its meeting to be held in the second week of next month. NIP has claimed that it allotted 594 acres out of the total 930 acres by June 2017. However, CFO PSM claimed that NIP has sold only 224 acres.
CEO, NIP, whose appointment is under question, stated that the issue will be resolved in a bilateral meeting. He, however, sought confirmation from CFO PSM on whether PSM had received Rs 1.78 billion prior to 2016. CFO PSM confirmed that this amount has been received which has been used to pay retired employees to avert contempt of court.
Chairman committee also grilled CEO NIP for quoting tentative price of plots provisionally allotted to some companies. Senator Kalsoom Perveen argued that NIP is allotting plots to big companies instead of small companies. Her stance was endorsed by the Committee Chairman. CEO NIP said that he is also entertaining applications for small plots of 2 acres in the event that a piece is left over after measuring the big plot.
Additional Secretary Incharge informed the committee that this issue came under discussion in the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) headed by the Prime Minister. Subsequent to a CCOP meeting, two more meetings have been held to resolve this issue. He said PSM's liabilities have touched Rs 190 billion.
The CEO informed the committee that 100 acres of land has been allotted to a company which is expected to invest $ 150 million within a few days during the first phase of establishment of NIP's industrial park. He said NIP has sold plots worth Rs 2.774 billion of which half of the amount has been paid to PSM as its share.
The committee expressed its concern on the size of plots and delay in finalization of land price and subsequent to clearance of dues to employees, adding employees should be given their rights.
The allotment/colonization status-BQIP is as follows: (i) Yamaha- Motorcycle OEM; (ii) KIA- Korean OEM with Lucky Group; (iii) Renault- French OEM with Al-Fattaim, Dubai; and (iv) Master Motors-bus assembly.
Auto venders: (i) MID Coil-Marubeni CR Sheet Manufacturer; (ii) GTRC-for redial tyre; (iii) Loads-radiators; (iv) Techno & AGI-Glass Screen; (v) Thal Engg & Thal Boshoku; and (vi) PROCON Engg.
Some of the members were unhappy with allotment of 180 acres of land to M/s Pak Suzuki and sought details of price and other documents. The committee maintained that the company has not utilised one of its plots so far despite passage of decades and the price of unutilized plot has increased manifold.
Payment of salaries The committee was informed that employee salaries were released by the Finance Division, estimated at Rs 380 million per month, after obtaining approval of the ECC and the Cabinet.
It was also revealed that the employees were being paid net salaries since June 2013 after an ECC decision; but the recent summary for payment of salaries for October and November 2017 was prepared on the basis of gross salary.
Additional Secretary Incharge MoI&P informed the committee that PSM Board had directed PSM management to first audit the number of employees and then bring the summary for the salary. He said, audit is completed and summary has been forwarded to the Privatisation Committee to be onsent to the ECC. He said, PSM has been asked to sell its scrap to meet its immediate financial requirements.
The committee decided that PC should send summary of Rs 505 million as gross salary per month to the ECC instead of net salary after senior Joint Secretary Finance Zahoor Ahmad who is also Member of PSM, said that Finance Division has no objection to payment of gross salary to the PSM employees.
However, CFO confronted Additional Secretary Incharge when the issue of gross salary came under discussion.
"We don't have accurate statistics of employees who have already availed net loans and loans in kind," said Mian Asad Haya-ud-Din. The CFO stated that complete statistics are available.
Mian Asad Haya-ud-Din further stated that it is the top priority of the government to pay Rs 10 billion of provident fund and gratuity, moneys that were used by the management unlawfully. PSM has been asked to sell scrap and coke breeze to meet their financial requirements.
Chairman Standing Committee stated that the proposal of Rs 505 million gross salaries will be adopted in the Senate so that the payment of this amount becomes binding on the government.
CFO PSM informed the committee that the mill has substantial stock of bars, approximate price of which is Rs 4.5 billion.
Senator Taj Haider proposed that the committee should recommend restoration of gas to process the available stock of steel bars which is enough to pay salaries to the employees for several months. He promised that subsequent to consumption of stock of bars, gas should again be suspended.
Kasloom Parveen said that both Houses of the Parliament should first debate the proposed to sell-off of Public Sector Entities (PSEs). Besides the officials of Ministry of Industries and Production, the meeting was attended by Senator Khalida Parveen and Senator Khanzada Khan.
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