ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) urged the government to privatize loss-making state owned entities (SOEs), including PIA, Pakistan Steel, Pakistan Railways and DISCOs, for improving the performance of these organizations and enable the country to decrease its debt.
It said that the government is spending billions of rupees every year to bail out these entities, which show that these entities are a big burden on the national exchequer.
While addressing as chief guest at a dinner reception hosted by Secretary General, Islamabad Estate Agents Association Zahid Rafiq , President ICCI Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari said that there are many reputed businessmen in the country who have the financial capacity and capability to turn the loss-making SOEs into profit-generating organizations and urged the government to hand over these SOEs to them on the condition that they would pay off all the debts of the country within 10 years and after that these SOEs should be transferred to their name.
He said that deregulation and privatization of banking and telecom sectors have made significant improvement in their performance and these two sectors are paying billions of rupees in taxes to the government.
He said that the best option of transforming loss-making SOEs into profit-generating entities is to privatize them as soon as possible.
Zafar Bakhtawari, former President ICCI, said that rising debt servicing obligations are consuming a major share of our total revenue due to which the country is unable to spend more on development and public welfare projects.
He said that Pakistan cannot achieve sustainable economic development without controlling the rising debt burden.
He urged the government to make policies to control debt and reduce non-development expenditures. He called upon the business community to work hard to promote trade and exports in order to improve the economy.
Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, former President ICCI said that running business entities is the job of the government. Therefore, he stressed that the government should focus on improving the regulatory framework for commercial organization and reduce its footprint in the business field by handing over the loss-making organizations to the private sector.
Islamabad Estate Agents Association President Sardar Tahir, Secretary General Zahid Rafiq and others also spoke at the occasion and urged the government to adopt austerity measures and reduce all unnecessary expenditure to overcome fiscal and current account deficits.
