In view of the huge size of National Investment Trust (NIT) transaction, it has been divided into five portions to privatise it in a smooth way, Secretary, Privatisation Commission, M Tahseen Khan Iqbal, said here on Saturday.
Talking to newsmen at the first national conference on Privatisation, he said that the government would soon offload 51 percent shares of NIT with management control. The net asset value of NIT stands at about Rs 60 to 70 billion, he added.
Tahseen said that Letters of Comfort (LoC), having volume of 45 percent had been issued to National Bank, Bank of Punjab and Faysal Bank at Rs 13.7 per unit price some time back to enable the NIT to fulfil its obligations, whereas the government would also privatise the non-LOC portion of NIT and hopefully get a good price.
On Karachi Electric Supply Co-operation (KESC) issue, the PC Secretary said that the government would get the highest price offered by the top bidder Saudi Kanooz Al-Watan Group. He said: "Talks with second highest bidder, Hassan Associates, are underway. They have not walked away. Hassan Associates have submitted their price, which would take some time to make the things final," he added.
About PTCL transaction, he told the newsmen that Etisalat, the successful bidder, would pay the amount by the end of this month.
On future privatisation transactions, he said that offloading of government stakes in different companies was in the pipeline.
Earlier, speaking at the conference organised by the Institute of Cost & Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP) in collaboration with Ministry of Privatisation and Investment, he spoke at length about the privatisation program of the government, what he said he meant "of the people".
He said that to run the business is not the job of government and if it involves itself in business, it would be hard for it to meet its real obligations in social sectors.
Blaming the wrong policies of past governments, he deplored that billions of rupees were injected to keep the loss-making public entities running at the cost of development in social sector.
"The Government, for the first time, received the dividend of Rs 522 million from UBL after injecting billions of rupees in over 30 years," he added.
While agreeing with the observations that in the past profit-making public entities were given to private sector on throwaway prices, he pointed out that it happened due to failure of past governments to undertake due diligence.
Tahseen said that the government would not sell any public sector entity at throwaway price and would make sure that it would be privatised to efficient and capable private sector people.
On privatisation of profit-making entities, he said that these could have made huge profits as compared to what they earn now.
Regarding PTCL, he said that Etislat has hired an international management consultant to amalgamate Etisalat and PTCL and to train concerned personnel to make effective the amalgamation of the two organisations.
Site Association of Industry Chairman Mirza Ikhtiar Baig said that privatisation was not expansion of production but replacement of capital or the national capital with foreign capital. "If the new owners invest far more and create additional production capacity that would be good for the country," he added.
Karachi Branch Council of ICMAP Chairman Javed Mansha and others also spoke.
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