No privatization proceeds form part of the revenue for next fiscal year, while Rs 50 billion was budgeted though not realized under this head in the current year. The government failed to privatize any public sector entity (PSE) during the current financial year in spite of appointing a federal minister for privatization Daniyal Aziz in August 2017.
No Privatization Commission's board meeting has been held during the last four months and no pre budget meeting of PC board was convened to discuss the budgetary target for financial year 2018-19.
Only profitable entities were privatised during the current tenure of the PML-N administration through offering government shares in the capital market. The government sold 20 per cent shares of the United Bank Limited (UBL) at Rs 38.2 billion, 5 percent shares of the Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) at Rs 15.34 billion, 11.46 percent shares of the Allied Bank Limited (ABL) at Rs 14.44billion, 41.5percent shares of the Habib Bank Limited (HBL) at Rs 102.34 billion and 88 percent shares of the National Power Construction Corporation (NPCC) at Rs 2.5billion.
Restructuring and privatization of entities which are hemorrhaging the economy include Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and power sector entities. This is a digression from the PML-N manifesto 2013 which states that as several key state owned enterprises like PIA, Railways, PSM, WAPDA and others institutions are a major drag on Pakistan's economy they would be restructured/ privatised. There are still 14 cases of recovery of outstanding dues from various private parties at various stages of litigation. These include: (i) Schon Group purchased National Fibers Limited, Pak-China Fertilizers Limited and Quaidabad Woolen Mills for Rs 1.3 billion and still owes Rs 319.3 million to the government of Pakistan.
The IMF in its latest post programme monitoring (PPM) report uploaded on its website on March 19, 2018 maintained that privatisation and restructuring of key loss-making Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) have been largely on hold; and assessed the combined accumulated losses of PSEs (including PIA, Pak Steel Mills, power sector) exceeding Rs 1.2 trillion (4 percent of GDP) which could eventually lead to sizable demand of budgetary resources.
At present, Privatization Commission has yet to appoint financial advisors for the divestment of government's shares in SME Bank and Mari Petroleum Company Limited which are at advance stage.
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