- PAC directs Privatisation Commission to first privatise state-owned enterprises running in losses
- PC secretary says commission unable to fulfil requirements of privatisation of 31 institutions
- PAC cannot challenge government’s privatisation policy: Khurshid Shah
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of National Assembly has directed the Privatisation Commission (PC) to give priority to the privatisation of “non-beneficial state-owned enterprises”.
The PAC on Tuesday met PAC Chairman Syed Khurshid Shah in the chair. Dr Afzal Pachicho, Jawad Anwar Chaudhry, Shafqat Mehmood, Chaudhry Asad ur Rehman, Syed Naveed Qamar, Syed Kazim Shah, Mian Abdul Manan, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Buland Akhtar Rana and officials of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and PC attended the meeting.
PAC asked PC to first privatise the institutions which were running in loss and then concentrate on other institutions included in the proposal.
In the privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mill (PSM), 14,000 acres of land owned by the body should be estimated separately in accordance with the market value, PAC asserted.
The commission briefed PAC that it did not have the ability for estimating the cost of 31 state-owned enterprises for privatisation.
The PC secretary said that PSM and Atisalat could not be presented for privatisation as both had defaulted millions of rupees. He said several cases on Atisalat were pending in courts. He said that both institutions were provided subsidy of Rs 500 billion during last year while PSM needed subsidy of Rs 2 billion every month to keep it functional. The secretary said that 20 percent of the budget goes for providing subsidy to run the national institutions running in loss.
The secretary said that the government had proposed privatisation of 68 public sector organisations including Pakistan International Airline (PIA), Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), PPPL, Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Sui Southern Gas Pipelines Limited (SSGPL), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) and PSM.
The privatisation commission informed PAC that Rs 2.1 billion were expected to be generated from privatisation of Heavy Industry Complex, Rs 1.8 billion from NPCC, Rs 9.4 billion from Allied Bank, Rs 925 million from Habib Bank and Rs 34 from privatisation of UBL.
The officials said that a financial advisor will be appointed within six to eight weeks in accordance with the PEPRA rules.
Responding to the questions of the members of the committee, the PC secretary said that an institution was put up for privatisation after passing through 18 to 20 phases. He revealed that the commission was not able to fulfil the requirements of privatization of 31 institutions.
During last five years, no institution was privatised due to which only six of 22 consultants were functioning only, he said adding that services of international engineers and consultants will be acquired for purpose of privatisation.
Speaking during the meeting members of the PAC raised various concerns over the privatisation policy of the government and said that such practice was witnessed during past but sans fruitful results.
PAC Chairman Syed Khurshid Shah said that privatization policy was compiled by the government and committee has no authority to challenge it. However, the committee will try its best to ensure transparency and keeping up the national interests during the privatisation process. He also asked the privatization commission to submit the details of personal record of the members of the privatization board.