PPL receives Rs903m from Byco via NAB
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KARACHI: The Pakistan Petroleum Limited has received Rs903.218 million from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against outstanding receivables from Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited, the company announced on Monday.
The PPL informed the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) about it in a regulatory filing and said that the company would pursue for remaining over Rs253m.
“In pursuance of Rule 5.6.1 of your Rules, we hereby inform you that the company has received a pay order for Rs903.218 million from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against long outstanding receivables of the Company from Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited,” the filing said.
“The company had recognised a provision against the debts due from Byco to the tune of the principal amount of Rs1,156.220 million. The provision will be reversed to the extent of the aforementioned amount of Rs903.218 million. The company is pursuing recovery of the remaining amount [principal as well as late payment surcharge] through NAB and the suit for recovery filed by it in the high court of Sindh at Karachi,” it added.
Financial market sources privy to the development said that NAB had last week distributed cheques amounting to Rs1.01bn amongst various state functionaries including the Sindh government, PPL, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) after making different recoveries.
A source said: “A few years ago a complaint was received from PPL, wherein it was alleged that the ministry of petroleum had allocated condensate of Hala Block to Byco, but it wilfully did not make the payments for it after the lapse of seven years. Byco COO Kamran Iftikhar Lari, however, has made plea bargain. In October 2020, he moved an application under Section 25(b) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 before an accountability court pleading to accept his plea bargain. The NAB chairman had accepted the plea bargain and had subsequently forwarded the matter to the court for its approval.”
The spokesman for the Byco Pakistan when contacted said that the amount was actually paid by the company.
“It’s true that plea bargain deal was requested by Mr Lari, which was accepted by the NAB but the amount was actually paid by Byco,” he said.
Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2021
