Islamabad, July 30: Pakistan's first satellite Paksat-1, acquired last year with an investment of around Rs 1.85 billion, would continue facing losses for its entire five-year life as it was not marketable in its two target regions, the Middle East and African countries, media reports said today. The government has now decided to consider the capital cost as subsidy over the entire life of the project because the satellite could meet only 66 per cent of its recurring cost, 'The Dawn' quoted finance ministry sources as saying. Both the costs were to be financed under the public sector development programme, it said, adding, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom (IT&T) was now seeking an ex-post facto approval of the Rs 1.85 billion for the project from the executive committee of the national economic council with a foreign exchange component of Rs 1.695 billion. Pakistan had acquired the satellite after concluding a contract with an American company, M/s Hughes, in July last year and it was moved from 50 east to the contracted orbit position of 38 east in December the same year. The paper said an official summary suggested that the satellite has a problem with one of its control processors in one of the series and its power supply system will need to be switched off for three hours from 11 pm to 2 pm for 90 days of the eclipse period every year.
Bureau Report