LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday demanded the government to revamp all the public sector enterprises (PSEs) immediately as a majority of public entities have failed to deliver the desired results.

“The Government must lay down a clear plan about the restructuring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs),” said LCCI President Mian Nauman Kabir, Senior Vice President Mian Rehman Aziz Chan and Vice President Haris Ateeq in a statement issued here on Saturday.

They further said that the government would have to make some extraordinary plan to control heavy losses to the national exchequer, as SOEs continued to face accumulated cash bleeding. “The business community is the ultimate loser, as the loss-making PSEs are being run through the duties and taxes imposed on the trade and industrial sectors,” they added.

According to him, the outstanding domestic debt of PSEs stood at Rs 1,785 billion in December 2021 and its losses result in the misallocation of taxpayers’ money and subsequently reduces the fiscal space for social sector development. Various departments and ministries should have been made redundant in the Federal government after the 18th Amendment, but they are still operating under different names. It is again a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The LCCI office-bearers said that keeping in view the massive loss being caused by PSEs, the government should take measures on war footing to make these organisations profitable or opt for privatisation.

They suggested the formation of a committee of experts from the public and private sectors to revisit the strategy on PSEs and adopt methods that provide a new impetus to them.

“The committee should go deep into the broader political philosophy and vision under which the PSEs will be required to play their role in the new competitive environment,” they added.

“PSEs should continue to remain the backbone of the economy and therefore their revival is critical to our economic survival. They are the only industries that the nation can depend on to check the further decline in our growth rate. Hence, it is all the more necessary for the government to increase its efforts for their revival. Greater autonomy and non-interference in their functioning have to be guaranteed so that the country can fully reap the full benefits of PSEs,” they added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022