Is a great 'criminal' injustice is being done on the approx 8500 Pakistan Steel Mill being offered a golden handshake? Let's look at the facts. The package is worth Rs23bn or approx 23lacs per employee or 2-3 years of pay on avg. By most reckoning that's generous, pandemic or not
It's an open secret that many if not most of the 8500 PST workers have second jobs and the wages from the steel mill was an additional income. On the other hand PST has accumulated over Rs220bn in debt, and this gargantuan figure is expanding everyday because of interest accrual
The mill has been incurring heavy losses since PPP regime and effectively production stopped during the previous PMLN regime. From 30,000 employees originally, through attrition and retirement, around 8500 are left. However no privatisation is possible with legacy employees there
It would be kind to characterise PSM as a white elephant. It's more like a long extinct mammoth that has no chance of revival. It had a capacity of 3 lac tonnes when it stopped operating. The pvt sector produces over 70 lac tonnes while paying approx Rs80bn in taxes pa.
Now after having considered all these facts does it make sense for the state to carry on paying salaries when the Mill is inoperative and employees not effectively employed? Does the golden hand shake and subsequent leasing of the core land not make sense?
Should the government, may the people through their taxes pay for employees in perpetuity even when there's little hope of their being productive? PSM losses add considerably to the burden on the national budget deficit and nations debt
Should this bottomless pit of throwing good money after bad not be brought to a close so that our hard earned tax money is better utilised in combatting COVID, generally improving our health facilities, and most importantly providing education?
*PSM
