The Ministry of Communication is reportedly in a very awkward position with respect to the payment of over Rs50 billion liabilities of various companies, collected by Pakistan Post Office Department (PPOD) as the Finance Ministry is not ready to release the amount, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.

Recently, the Power Division wrote a letter to the secretary Ministry of Communication, highlighting important issue being faced by the power Distribution Companies (Discos) viz non-provision of funds collected by the GPOs on behalf of the Discos.

According to the Secretary Communication, Zafar Hasan, Pakistan Post is offering agency functions to a number of public and private organizations.

The new arrangement/framework of getting funds from the Finance Division has ceased the releases for clearance of the PPOD liabilities. The matter was taken with the Finance Division with request for issuance of Letter of Clearance (LoC) worth Rs36.264 billion against the funds deposited by the PPOD in Central Account No 1 (Non-Food) on behalf of partner agencies up to January 2022.

“The liabilities are increasing with each passing day and by the end of February 2022 the accrued liabilities have piled up to Rs50.402 billion payables to the agencies on whose behalf the funds are collected and deposited in Account No-1. The Finance Division was accordingly, requested once again to release the funds. It is further highlighted that the partner agencies including Discos have also been informed about the situation and efforts undertaken in this regard,” he added.

In a letter to Secretary Finance, Secretary Communication said that as first step opening of a commercial bank account in National Bank of Pakistan for agency functions of PPOD has been achieved.

However, efforts are underway with the Finance Division for deposit of the accrued amount for disbursement to all concerned.

The PPOD is providing services (agency function) to other entities including collection of utility bills since long.

Funds are collected on behalf of various companies and deposited in Central Account-1 and released to respective partner organizations on release of funds by the Finance Division.

Currently, the process has been discontinued by the Finance Division ad now funds are released to the PPOD against employees’ related and operational expenses only. Resultantly, the amount collected on behalf of partner organisations in not being cleared and their liabilities are increased with every passing day.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on April 10, 2022.