ISLAMABAD: Privatisation Commission is said to be chalking out a three-phased privatisation programme of State Owned Entities (SOEs) excluding entities with some national or strategic interest, official sources told Business Recorder.
In a presentation to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held on March 7, 2024, the Prime Minister directed that a compressive privatisation programme for the next five years (2024-29) be chalked out in consultation with the concerned Ministries/Divisions.
Section 5(b) of the Privatisation Commission Ordinance, 2000 provides that the Commission shall prepare for the approval of the Cabinet, a comprehensive privatisation programme. Privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Power Distribution Companies (Discos) are top on the list of entities which are on active privatisation list.
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According to the Privatisation Commission, the programme shall be chalked out in three phases (1 year, 1-3 year and 3-5 year) keeping in view the following policy objectives/ guidelines: (i) loss-making commercial SOEs shall be privatised on priority;(ii) footprint of the federal government shall be restricted to commercial SOEs having some national and strategic interest; (iii) profitable commercial SOEs shall also be identified to reduce federal footprint in economy; and (iv) issues pertaining to SOEs already included in the active privatisation list shall be resolved by the concerned Ministries/Divisions on priority in order to fast track their privatisation.
The Prime Minister further directed that Finance Division’s report titled “federal footprint- State Owned Enterprises” of December, 2023 (available on https://www.finarce.gov.pk/publications/Federal footprint SoEs consolidated Report FY 2020- 22, pdf) may also be perused by the respective Ministries /Divisions to identify the commercial SoEs to be privatised based on the above-mentioned policy objectives/guidelines, before the same is placed for approval of the CCoP/Cabinet.
In view of the Prime Minister’s directives, Privatisation Commission requested that each Ministry/Division identify the Commercial SOEs to be included in privatisation programme, based on the policy objectives, indicating: (i) each commercial SOE identifying the phase (1 year, 1-3 years or 3-5 years) of privatisation programme; (ii) commercial SOEs not to be privatised having some national or strategic interest; and (iii) issues, including but not limited to, employees, property, legislation, regulations, liabilities etc. required to be addressed or likely to hinder the privatisation process and the proposed way forward.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024