ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Privatization Abdul Aleem Khan has said that bids will be invited again for the privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
The meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Privatization was held under the chairmanship of Senator Talal Chaudhry, in which Federal Minister for Privatization Abdul Aleem Khan gave a briefing on the privatization of PIA.
In the meeting, the reasons for the lack of interest of the buyers for the privatization of PIA and the bid many times lower than the benchmark were discussed.
Briefing the Senate Committee, Aleem Khan said that when “I become the minister, the process of privatization of PIA had started, PIA had total losses of 830 billion and there was a loss of 45 billion at the time of privatization.
The federal minister said that when “We asked for bids for PIA and interested parties participated, once the process of privatization starts, it cannot be changed. He said federal government will ask for bids again for the privatization of PIA and work is underway for this regards as Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif's focus on re-privatisation of PIA.
Aleem Khan said that the privatization of Air India had also failed 5 times, after that Air India was privatized.
“If PIA is to be sold, the government will have to take a big heart, PIA is profitable”. “There is full potential to become an institution and I still say PIA can become a profitable institution, PIA has very profitable routes”.
The Federal Minister of Privatization further said that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was told to remove GST on the purchase of new aircraft. He said GST is not charged on aircraft in this way all over the world, but the FBR is within its own axis which does not understand.
He said that the government should clear the government institutions of all losses before privatization, the decision to privatize PIA should be taken immediately. He sought help of other ministers for privatization of PIA.
Secretary Privatization Commission told the meeting that investors had asked to waive 26 billion rupees in tax and undertake payment of financing of 10 billion rupees.
