ISLAMABAD: The government to sell 12 public sector enterprises (PSEs), including steel mills during the new fiscal year 2015-16, under an agreement it signed with the IMF.
The government will start privatising national entities with the sale of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC) during the ongoing fiscal year.
Under the new structural benchmark placed by the IMF, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) will determine and notify multi-year tariff for Faisalabad, Islamabad and Lahore Electric Power companies till end-November 2015, which will pave the way for the completion of privatisation deals.
The 12 PSEs with envisaged timeline to privatise include strategic and asset sale of PSM by December 2015, sale of 18.39 percent shares of Mari Petroleum by end-September 2015, sale of 10-15 percent shares of Pak Arab Refinery by end December 2015, strategic and asset sale of Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) by end-December 2015, sale of 40.25 percent shares of Kot Addu Power Company by December 2015, sale of 26 percent shares of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) by end December 2015, strategic and asset sale of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) beyond March 2016, strategic and asset sale of Jamshoro Power Generation Company Limited by April 2016, strategic and asset sale of State Life Insurance Corporation by end June 2016, strategic and asset sale of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) and Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) by end June 2016. The government had made a commitment to sell 88 percent shares of the National Power Construction Corp (NPCC) by end June, which could not be accomplished.
The government had finalised the sale of Heavy Electric Complex (HEC) by May 2015 but it had to be cancelled because the buyer failed to deposit due amount of Rs225 million. The government has developed restructuring plans for the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and Pakistan Railways (PR), and financial advisers are also finalising a plan for the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
