ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has approved the framework agreement between Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) and State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) for LNG import and funding of Rs157.734 million for the Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC).
The ECC also approved Rs404.769 million to meet maintenance requirements of the 6-Aviation Squadron. Top official sources said that Six Aviation Squadron of Cabinet Division operates a fleet of helicopters. The squadron was given the mandate to carry out relief and rescue operations besides missions related to VVIP and foreign dignitaries.
The repair and maintenance of helicopters is a regular feature to keep the fleet operational. For this, 6 Aviation Squadron requires around Rs550 million. The government had allocated Rs111 million for the maintenance of helicopters fleet in the regular budget, the same after placing with NBP for payment through LC have been consumed. Now the ECC has approved Technical Supplementary Grant of Rs404.769 million for maintenance requirement of helicopters fleet.
In another summary for provision of funds for payment of salaries to HEC employees, it was informed that Heavy Electrical Complex is a power transformer manufacturing company, which was offered for sale by the Privatization Commission (PC) after a competitive bidding process held last year.
Under the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA), all additional land other than the factory premises shall be treated as an ‘Excluded Asset’. Therefore, 30.8 kanals, located in Taxila, needed to be fully separated from HEC prior to the transfer of shares to the prospective buyer.
To safeguard the interest of the federal government, the ECC decided to transfer the HEC land to SPD. The SPD has been delaying the payment to be paid as fee for the mutation of HEC land. Given the impasse, it was decided in the meeting that SPD should mutate the land within a week, or in the case of any delay on the part of SPD, MoIP can mutate the HEC’s land in favour of SEC as an interim measure. It was also decided that the MoIP should move a summary for ECC for the provision of requisite funds for the transfer of HEC land to SEC.
The MoIP has informed FD that the anticipated savings during the current financial year 2022-2023 have already been utilised to meet the shortfalls under the Head of Account(s) of employee related expenses in terms of grant. Therefore, MolP does not possess the requisite funds to proceed in this case.
According to official announcement, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar chaired the meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet. The ECC directed the Ministry of Petroleum to determine the need of LNG at least three months in advance on a rolling basis. The ECC also discussed and approved Rs157.734 million additional funds in favor of the Ministry of Industries and Production for the payment of employees’ salaries of Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC), markup to Bank of Khyber, and operating/ running expenses, subject to reconciliation of figures from the Finance Division.
