Planned sell-off of HEC: CCoP asked to revisit decision

Expressing concern over government's plan to sell Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC) on a throwaway price, a parliamentary panel on Monday asked Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) to revisit its decision. A sub-committee of national Assembly's Public Accounts Committee examined the audit paras of industries and production ministry for the year 2007-08. Sardar Ashiq Hussain Gopang presided over the meeting. Managing Director HEC Mohammad Ali acknowledged that privatisation of HEC at a amount of Rs 250 million, approved by CCoP, is practically no money at all.
He said that that HEC started its production in 1997 but it has been on the active list of privatisation since 1996. He said the accumulated charges of the complex is Rs 405 million and the entity has been earning profit as they received a number of works from DISCOs and the private sector. He said the approved dispose of price of HEC was very low. He was responding to Convener PAC's question whether he was satisfied with the sell-off price fixed by the CCoP.
Secretary Industries said the matter of privatisation of HEC is pending in the court. Once it is settled, he said that the ministry would approach the government for exclusion of HEC from the active list of privatisation. The committee endorsed the statement of secretary and stated that being a national asset it should not be sold out to private sector as it is a profitable entity.
Audit official stated that it is not worth that the HEC should be sold for Rs 250 million as it would also be spent in settlement dues. Member Committee Shaikh Rohale Asghar said the government must not dispose of profitable national assets on throw away prices. The committee was further informed that the CCoP has fixed the reference price of Pakistan Machine Tool Factory (Pvt) Limited, Rs 8 billion. The liability is Rs 3.8 billion.
The committee was informed that Ministry of Defence Production has shown interest in take-over of the entity and the process of due diligence has also been completed. The Convener Committee said the government should discourage the sell-off of profitable entities and directed the management of Tool Factory that they should submit a plan of restructuring to Ministry of Finance rather to focus on privatisation. Another Member Committee Shahida Akhtar Ali said that privatisation is no solution to financial problems of entities. She suggested that government should invest money to make them profitable.