ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly was informed on Tuesday that receivables of the Pakistan State Oil went up to Rs215bn by May 12 this year.

A meeting of the committee presided over by its Chairman Khursheed Ahmed Shah was told during the scrutiny of audit paras of the ministry of petroleum and natural resources that power generation companies and the government owed billions of rupees to the PSO.

The committee summoned secretaries of the ministries of Finance and Water and Power for a discussion on the matter.

PSO Managing Director Imranul Haq informed the committee that the major defaulter was the power sector which owed Rs128bn, followed by PIA with Rs13bn and the government Rs11.8bn.

Water and Power Secretary Arshad Mirza said the functioning of the government would be adversely affected if PSO stopped supply to defaulter companies. He pointed out that the dues were several years’ old and the finance was the relevant ministry which could deal with the issue.

Auditor General of Pakistan Rana Asad Amin, who held important positions in the finance ministry for over a decade, said the ministry had a limited role in the matter.

But the PAC chairman said the finance was the relevant ministry because it released money on behalf of the government. The matter should have been resolved at the inter-ministerial level, he added.

Mr Shah said that in addition to the secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum, the secretaries of the ministries of Finance and Water and Power should also be summoned to the next PAC meeting.

The audit report claimed that despite being a profitable company, PSO continued to face liquidity problems because of ever-increasing receivables which went up from Rs80bn in 2008-09 to Rs117bn in 2009-10.

Director General Audit Irfan Watto informed the committee that on July 8, 2009, a day after the Supreme Court struck down the statutory regulatory order (SRO) regarding Rs8.5 per litre as petroleum levy, the PSO imported 2,724,386 litres of oil without paying the said levy but did not pass on Rs23.2 million to consumers nor deposited the amount in the treasury.

Published in Dawn, September 30th , 2015

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