{"id":39179,"date":"2023-10-11T14:21:50","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T14:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/?p=39179"},"modified":"2023-10-11T14:22:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T14:22:24","slug":"govt-committed-to-privatising-entities-losing-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/govt-committed-to-privatising-entities-losing-money\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Govt committed to privatising entities losing money’"},"content":{"rendered":"

APP<\/strong><\/p>\n

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ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minis\u00adter for Privatisation Fawad Hasan Fawad said on Tuesday the government was taking forward the privatisation process in a transparent manner and, at the same time ensuring the protection of public interest.<\/p>\n

Addressing a news conference along with Information Minister Murtaza Solangi, he stressed the importance of privatising loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to enable them to compete effectively in the global economy.<\/p>\n

The minister said the government wanted to privatise Pakistan Inter\u00adnational Airlines in order to bolster the country\u2019s aviation industry and to make Pakistan a regional hub.<\/p>\n

Regarding Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), the minister indicated that the government planned to place the matter before a meeting of the federal cabinet.<\/p>\n

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Fawad says PIA\u2019s losses amounted to Rs713 billion at end of June this year<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cA robust regulatory control regime will be in place to safeguard public interest throughout the [privatisation] process,\u201d Mr Fawad added.<\/p>\n

He expressed regret over the past governments\u2019 failure to address the country\u2019s economic challenges, recalling that the privatisation process had begun in 1994, but some cases were still under litigation.<\/p>\n

The minister reaffirmed the caretaker setup\u2019s \u201ccommitment to fulfilling the responsibilities entrusted to it\u201d by the previous governments.<\/p>\n

Mr Fawad disclosed that in 2020, SOEs had a major role in the deficit in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Fifteen major entities had incurred losses amounting to Rs 2 trillion, he added.<\/p>\n

The government had to spare a staggering Rs 2.54tr to support loss-making SOEs between 2018 and 2022, highlighting the magnitude of the problem by saying the amount could have been allocated to advance projects like the Bhasha Dam.<\/p>\n

By the end of June this year, PIA\u2019s losses amounted to Rs713 billion, Rs263 billion of which consisted of debt, Mr Fawad said.<\/p>\n

An additional Rs13bn was provided by banks on government guarantee, he added. The government provided Rs150 billion from its own resources as well.<\/p>\n

The minister said another objective of the airline\u2019s privatisation was to utilise its potential and to avoid unbearable losses to the exchequer, which stood at Rs12.7bn per month.<\/p>\n

He said the Privatisation Commission had suggested the appointment of a single-transaction adviser, for which approval would be obtained from the federal cabinet on the basis of a report prepared in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cEfforts are being made to resume PIA flight operations for Europe as soon as possible,\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n

A team of experts was expected to visit Pakistan in December or January for reviewing flight safety and security standards.<\/p>\n

He said Pakistani pilots were highly skilled and capable of landing and taking off in difficult areas. \u201cOur engineers and supporting staff are up to the international standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PIA fleet consists of 34 air\u00adcraft, out of which 15 are grounded, including six leased ones. Their accumulated losses were recorded at $2 million.<\/p>\n

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Source: Dawn<\/p>\n

Link: https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1780441<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

APP ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minis\u00adter for Privatisation Fawad Hasan Fawad said on Tuesday the government was taking forward the privatisation process in a transparent manner and, at [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39179"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39182,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39179\/revisions\/39182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawadhasanfawad.pk\/fhf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}