Public sector enterprises: LCCI pushes for revamping PSEs

These are the most employment- and capital-intensive units

LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Friday urged the government to develop a strategy for the growth of public sector enterprises (PSEs).

In a statement, the LCCI office-bearers said there was a dire need to focus on loss-making PSEs, which drained away a huge chunk of government resources each year and the burden had to be borne by the taxpayers.

Had these enterprises been providing revenue to the government and catering to the needs of the masses, the cost might have been justified, they said, adding the taxpayers were the end-losers as the loss-making PSEs were being run through the duties and taxes paid by them.

Keeping in view the massive loss of around Rs600 billion annually being caused by the PSEs, the LCCI office-bearers asked the government to take measures on a war footing to make these institutions profitable.

In advanced economies like the United States, United Kingdom and Japan, the role of PSEs is minimal and the private sector is the most important instrument of socio-economic prosperity.

However, they said the significance of PSEs could not be ignored in view of the fact that they were the most employment-intensive and capital-intensive organisations.

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

They stressed that the PSEs should continue to remain the backbone of the economy and therefore their revival was critical to the economic survival.

"PSEs are the only industries that the nation can depend on to check further decline in our growth rate. It is all the more necessary for the government to increase its efforts for revival of the PSEs," they said.

"Greater autonomy and non-interference in their functioning have to be guaranteed so that the country can fully reap full benefits of the PSEs."

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2016.

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