Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) has offered the services of hundreds of its employees on deputation to the Federal and Provincial Governments and their attached departments, sources close to Chairman PSM told Business Recorder.
The offer came from PSM management at a time when the government is making all-out efforts to revive the mills shut down in June 2015 mainly due to non-payment of gas bills.
PSM is inflicting over Rs 1.5 billion monthly financial loss to the national exchequer reflecting the amount paid to employees for salaries and other incidental expenditure.
On the basis of this calculation, Rs 20 billion per annum financial loss has been incurred by the national exchequer.
Unofficially it has been revealed that total liabilities and loans of PSM stood at Rs 500 billion as of December 31, 2019.
Last week, the Ministry of Industries and Production failed to get a nod from the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet to pay Rs 3.2 billion to SSGCL to clear current gas bill accumulated from 2015 to November 2019.
Pakistan Steel Mills being the largest industrial and iron producing industry of the country has a team of experienced and trained manpower through which the operations have been carried out at various levels.
As the production activities of PSM halted since June, 2015 manpower with no work in hand is being paid monthly salaries by the federal government - money released from time to time in the shape of loan to the organisation.
In order to utilize the services of available manpower in a proper manner to minimize financial burden, PSM Board approved the following in its meeting held on February 8, 2018: "the proposal for effective utilization of technical as well as non-technical employees and professionals of PSM in different Ministries and organisations of Federal Government on deputation basis."
According to the details provided by the PSM to Federal Government, the strength of officers and workers stood at 567 whose services can be offered to the Federal Government. Of this, in engineering discipline available strength of officers is 64 whereas workers strength is 4. The number of professional (PhD/specialist/IT/law, marketing/finance etc. is 14, Masters degree holders 52 (officer 12, workers 32), Bachelor degree holders are 217 (officers 12, workers 205) and B.Tech/DAE/AMIE are 315 (officers 33, workers 182).