Failed state-run firms continue to damage country: PBIF chief

KARACHI: President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals (PBIF) Forum Mian Zahid Hussain has said failed state-run companies continue to damage the country.

The matter should be resolved otherwise, the economy would never take off and the country would remain dependent on loans for survival, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain masses have to pay trillion to keep those dysfunctional units running and keep jobs of the incompetent and corrupt.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said the World Bank in a recent report said that power sector gobbled up 45 billion dollars in a decade and that cost of power production was 25 percent higher in Pakistan as compared to regional countries because of wrong power purchase agreements.

He noted that actual losses of the power sector might be double than the cited figure and the circular debt had increased to 2.2 trillion rupees despite the tall claims of ministers.

He said that dysfunctional power distribution companies was a gift to people of Pakistan by the former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz which had become a drag on the economy as their average losses were around 17.7 percent.

He noted the technical and commercial losses of the distribution companies were running in billions which the government also pay billions in fine to IPPs due to late payments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020