Business

Approval of SOE bill delayed

Under the bill, central monitoring unit will be established

APP February 15, 2022

A view of the National Assembly as it went orange on Wednesday to show solidarity with the global 16 Days of Activism campaign against Gender-Based Violence. PHOTO: EXPRESS

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue has deferred the approval of State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) and Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation (FRDL) bills 2021 till February 16 for accommodating Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules.

In a meeting on Monday, the committee, headed by member National Assembly (MNA) Faizullah, discussed various points of the SOE bill and decided not to approve it in haste.

Briefing the committee, the Ministry of Finance underlined that the bill was aimed at establishing a central monitoring unit (CMU) in the Finance Division, which would also maintain an electronic database of financial and operational performance of SOEs.

“The CMU will undertake analysis of financial, commercial and operational performance of SOEs, for which recommendations will be submitted to the federal government,” it was learnt.

On the occasion, Ministry of Finance Secretary Hamed Yaqoob Sheikh noted that under the SOE Bill 2021, the state-owned entities would maintain independent procurement policies with approval of the federal government.

The new act would not be in contradiction to the company’s act, he pointed out.

“There were over 200 SOEs and their overall losses were around Rs145 billion,” an official of the finance ministry revealed.

The losses were mainly suffered by power distribution companies (DISCOs), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and the National Highway Authority.

“However, Oil and Gas Development Company is a profit-earning entity,” he mentioned.

Briefing the committee about the FRDL bill, he pointed out that currently the debt guarantees given by the government stood at 6% of gross domestic product (GDP), which would be brought down to 2% through legislation.

“The bill has been proposed to bring the overall debt-to-GDP ratio to 60% and outstanding guarantees to 10% of GDP,” he underlined, adding that the target of debt stock and guarantees had been proposed at 70% of GDP.

Export-Import Bank Chief Executive Officer Irfan Bukhari briefed the committee about the functions and working of the bank.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2022.

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