KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has paid Rs400 million to the state-owned Paki-stan State Oil (PSO), citing sources.
The national flag carrier has disbursed another installment of fuel payment to the Pakistan State Oil (Oil) today after its account was restored by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) yesterday.
The national airline is due to pay Rs1.5 million to the PSO to maintain its credit limit, whereas, PIA will have to pay Rs1.10 billion more to reach the credit limit. A few days ago, the fuel supply was suspended to the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) planes at two major airports in Saudi Arabia.
The fuel supply to the PIA planes was suspended at two major airports in Saudi Arabia, Makkah and Madinah, due to non-payment of dues, sources told ARY News.
Sources added that the PIA flights were delayed for three to four hours due to the halt in fuel supply at Makkah and Madinah airports.
The PIA spokesperson confirmed the development. In a statement, the PIA spokesperson clarified that swift payments were made to the concerned oil companies.
It added that the fuel supply was temporarily suspended due to a delay in the transfer of funds to the oil firms’ accounts. The spokesperson said that the fuel supply would be resumed soon after the com-pletion of the transactions.
The national flag carrier had already suffered a huge financial loss due to a days-long halt in fuel supply locally in October after the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) rejected to continue supplies due to non-payment of dues.
In October, Pakistan International Airlines had suffered a ‘loss’ of Rs10 billion due to the current fuel crisis that led to the suspension of over 800 flights. –Agencies
