Govt committed to collect Rs81b from Engro, Fatima Plants

Abn-e-Ameer

Islamabad: The government has booked Rs 81 billion against two new fertilizers plants-Fatima and Engro on account of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC).

The government has been providing gas to Fatima and Engro Fertilizers Plants at discounted rates at 70 cents. However, these fertilizer plants collected huge money from farmers but did not pay the government.

However, these two fertilizer plants have been charging the rate of fertilizer from the fertilizer at par with other fertilizer plants who were paying a higher rate of gas.

They had received Rs 81 billion from the poor farmers.

The Engro fertilizer plant has paid dividends to the shareholders but did not pay any single amount to the government. The same is the case with the Fatima fertilizer plants.

These two fertilizer plants have collected Rs 81 billion from January 2012 to June 2020.

The government had billed a total amount of Rs 828 billion during this period under review. Out of the total billed and unbilled amount, the government had collected Rs 305 billion.

The total outstanding amount stood at Rs 524 billion as of June 2020 against different consumers.

Read More: Engro Fertilizer working on BMR project

The gas companies had billed Rs 30 billion against fertilizer-fuel and fertilizers plants deposited Rs 14 billion during the period under study.

The government billed Rs 211 billion against fertilizer feed (old) and fertilizer companies deposited Rs 113 billion.

The outstanding amount is Rs 98 billion.

IPPs had paid Rs 57 billion out of the total billed amount of Rs 67 billion.

K-Electric had paid only Rs 4 billion out of the total Rs 44 billion billed amount. Outstanding amounted to Rs 40 billion as of June 2020.

The gas companies had billed Rs 75 billion against Gencos. They paid Rs 48 billion with Rs 28 billion outstanding. The general industry had paid Rs 26 billion out of a total of Rs 76 billion. Outstanding amounts to Rs 51 billion.

The gas utilities had billed Rs 135 billion against captive power plants. However, they paid only Rs 19 billion. Outstanding stood at Rs 116 billion.

Read More: Gas supply at discounted rates to AGL and Fatima approved

Rather than making adjustments, the government had poured billions of rupees subsidies into these captive power plants during the last few years.

The textile industry owns these captive power plants.