Islamabad, 12 December 2022 (GNP): On Sunday, the Pakistan Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, chaired a virtual meeting regarding the out-of-court settlement with Tethyan Copper Ltd.
The mining firm sued the Government of Pakistan for not granting mining permission to it in the Balochistan province in 2011 in the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement for Investment Disputes (ICSID).
In 2017 the International Centre for Investment Disputes (ICSID) ruled against the Pakistan Government and penalized the government for paying to pay 5.9 billion US dollars to the mining firm in 2019.
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For the amicable out-of-the-court settlement of this dispute, the Economic Coordination Committee meeting chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar decided on two very important agenda items for this dispute settlement.
One, the Government of Pakistan would clear the liabilities to Antofagasta PLC. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) also authorized the Finance Division to collect a sum of USSD 22,718,173/- via Government Holding Properties Limited (GHPL), Oil and Gas Development Authorities (OGDCL) Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) for depositing in the escrow account from March 31, 2022, to December 15, 2022.
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Second, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) directed the Finance Division to arrange for the accrued interest on the escrow account from the loan of the Government of Balochistan that GHPL has raised on the guarantee of the Government of Pakistan.
The payable USSD 8,519,314/- would be deducted from the 65 billion rupees loan of the Government of Balochistan.
Moreover, ECC also approved a proposal by the Finance Division to fund the Reko Did Project for the Government of Balochistan through the share of the Government of Pakistan; USSD 717 would be paid by the Government of Pakistan in 6 years through this support funding.