ISLAMABAD, Sept 27: The Minister for Ports and Shipping, Babar Ghouri, informed the National Assembly on Monday that the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) had paid Rs32.899 million to Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) as its share of revenue from port operations since March 2008.

In a written reply to a question by MNA Shaheen Ishfaq of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, the federal minister said that operations of Gwadar Port had been transferred to the PSA under a concession agreement.

Under the agreement, he said, the PSA was required to pay the share of revenue to the GPA at a rate of nine per cent of the total revenue earned by the PSA through operations.

The PML-N MNA had asked the minister to inform the House about the losses suffered and profits earned from Gwadar Port operations since March 1, 2008.

The minister further told the House that the government had released Rs649.3 million to Gwadar Port Authority out of a total allocation of Rs804.9 million in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

About the non-development budget, the minister said the government had allocated Rs200 million for the ongoing financial year, but so far only Rs40 million had been released.

In response to a question by another PML-N MNA, Rana Mahmoodul Hassan, the minister denied that shipping companies at several ports of the country were charging an additional surcharge of 10 dollars per container as “international security port surcharge”.

GOLD AND SILVER RESERVES: The Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Syed Naveed Qamar, in response to a question by Shaheen Ishfaq informed the House that the country had a total of 49.73 million ounces of gold and silver reserves. He said 47.24 million ounces of gold reserves had been discovered at Saindak and Rekodiq projects whereas 2.49 million ounces of silver reserves were present at Saindak project.

In reply to a question by PML-N's Nuzhat Sadiq, the minister told the House that the gas utility companies had earned a total of Rs181.1 billion under the head of natural gas charges from August last year to March this year.