Sale of five PSEs by PML-N government fetched $1.124 billion: Senate panel informed

A parliamentary panel was informed Wednesday that former government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz completed privatization process of five public sector entities, which generated $ 1.124 billion.
Secretary Privatization Rizwan Malik while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Privatization, which met here with Senator Mir Muhammad Yousuf Badini in the chair, also informed that 26 transactions were initiated from 2013-18, out of which five transactions including United Bank Limited, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, Allied Bank Limited, Habib Bank Limited, and National Power Construction Company had been completed.
The panel asked the Ministry of Privatization to present before the committee a comprehensive index of key performance indicators for the Privatization Division and Privatization Commission with timelines and benchmarks on yearly basis. The committee also asked the ministry to come up with proposals of market-based evaluation for the entities being considered for privatization.
While briefing the panel about the budget earmarked for the Ministry of Privatization, the officials said that the government has allocated budget of Rs 166 million for the current financial year against the last year's budget of Rs 153.829 million. Out of this amount, Rs 107.9 million are allocated for Privatization Commission and Rs 58.1 million for the Privatization Division. The committee was given the details of the structural changes in the ministry over the past years, modes of privatization, details of bidding processes, details of completed transactions and future plans.
The committee strongly recommended making the privatization process time-bound and also ensuring transparency. The ministry was asked to give information about what criterion is adopted to hire consultants and the lessons the Commission learnt from its past experiences.
The committee also asked the ministry to adopt more structural procedures to analyze viability of privatization, look into the entities from the perspective of investors and attain information from the core level to ascertain the problems faced in any particular state entity which is to be privatized.
The committee was told that the government has directed the ministry to formulate a new privatization policy and program to be presented before the Cabinet Committee on Privatization which will be accordingly shared with the Senate's committee in near future.
The secretary Privatization Commission further informed that the finance minister has directed to formulate a new privatization policy to revise the list and also look into the viability of privatization of these entities for making them profit-oriented.
In the new policy, special emphasis would be given on improving financial health of such organizations in order to attract potential buyers to create a win-a-win situation for all stakeholders, he remarked.
He said that after the formulation of policy, the decision of listing and delisting of loss-making entities would be taken to initiate their privatization as well as identifying the possible time period of the proceedings.
The secretary privatization informed the committee that 172 transactions have been completed so far, adding that Rs 648.9 billion were raised by the privatization of entities.
Meanwhile, the committee was also apprised of the working mechanism of the Planning Commission, its performance and performance of other allied departments, besides sharing the issues and challenges being faced by them.
The meeting was also attended by Senator Muhammad Ayub, Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak, Senator Robina Khalid, Senator Abida Muhammad Khan, Secretary Privatization Rizwan Malik, Director General Privatization Commission Mukhtar Paras Shah, and other officials. The meeting was conducted to have a comprehensive introductory briefing about the working and performance of the Ministry of Privatization and its allied departments.