The Pakistan Tehreeke Insaf (PTI) government has waived off Rs228 billion of influential industrialists and owners of fertilizer, CNG and power sector companies through a presidential ordinance enforced with immediate effect from August 28 The News International has reported.
As per the details, President Arif Alvi waived half of the outstanding liabilities of the said players of the amount collected from May 22, 2015 to December 21 2018.
Furthermore, the government also reduced Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) rates by up to 75%, which would push down prices of gas and fertiliser for the end-consumers.
According to the Petroleum Division statistics, as of the end of December 2018, the total principal liabilities of these sectors stood at Rs416.3 billion and half of those were written off by the government.
Cumulative GIDC collection since 2012 was recorded at Rs701.5 billion till the end of December 2018, out of which only Rs285 billion had been deposited.
The government further waived the late payment surcharge, which was supposed to be paid at the rate of 4% plus three-month Karachi Interbank Offered Rate (Kibor), which currently stands at 13.7%, meaning the government has written off 17.4% mark-up, which brings the total to over Rs300 billion.
The ordinance also did not address the issue of how to refund 50% GIDC to those companies that timely discharged their legal obligations and paid the entire amount of GIDC.
