Ministry of Finance (MoF) has released Rs 870 million for payment of salaries of Pakistan Steel Mills' (PSM) employees. Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet in its meeting held in the last week of January approved the amount for payment of salaries of the shutdown PSM. The amount has only been released for the disbursement of two month salaries to the over 14,000 employees of PSM. After receiving the amount, PSM management on Monday issued pay slips to the employees for the month of October and November 2015. Salary for December 2015 and January 2016 has yet to be paid.
Salaries of PSM employees, including 13,300 permanent and 1,200 daily wages/contractual, are being delayed for the last one year as the Mills is unable to perform well. The country's largest steel producing plant has been shutdown since last July due to insufficient supply of gas. Therefore, the federal government is continually funding for payment of salaries. A package of some Rs 18.5 billion was approved by the ECC to revive PSM production and secure the job of over 14,000 workers, however, despite consumption of this fund the mill is still not operational.