Bureaucracy won’t hamper privatisation, promises PM

KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday said that the privatisation process would be carried out in a transparent way without any bureaucratic hurdles and that the government would consult the business community before finalising any transaction in that regard.

In a meeting with business leaders in Karachi, he said it was not the government’s job to run the businesses, rather the private sector was there for the purpose, which could play their due role in the country’s development and prosperity.

The prime minister directed all the relevant federal ministers and secretaries to hold meeting with Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) so that the issues being faced by business community could be extensively discussed for solutions.

He said he himself would personally review the outcome of discussions and, accordingly, announce relief on May 1.

Businessmen Group Chairman Zubair Motiwala and KCCI President Iftikhar Ahmed Sheikh were leading the delegation of Karachi businesspersons.

According to a KCCI statement, Shehbaz asked Federal Minister for Planning & Development Ahsan Iqbal to coordinate the meetings with ministers and secretaries so that immediate relief could be provided to perturbed business community of Karachi. He directed the Federal Board of Revenue to defer the controversial SRO350, besides advising release of all the pending payments against customs rebate, sales tax and income tax refunds, duty drawback of local taxes & levies (DLTL) etc.

Shehbaz took serious notice exorbitantly high gas and electricity tariffs and assured the business leaders to give due consideration to KCCI’s suggestions for bringing down the energy tariffs at par with regional countries.

Commenting on concerns expressed over severe water shortages being faced by Karachi, he said that the funds for desperately needed K-IV project, which have been pending since long, would be released as per commitment. He asked the finance minister to start work on how to reduce the interest rate as the inflation has eased. He said the government, in consultation with the business community, would chalk out a comprehensive policy framework to increase the exports.

He asked the business community to sit with the government to resolve their issues.

As regards the sugar situation in the country, he said the government might opt for export of the commodity in case its stock was in surplus. He said the government was also focusing on curbing smuggling of the commodity.

He said an amount of Rs2.7 trillion of tax money was stuck in litigation, and the government was trying to get the court decisions as soon as possible.

Zubair Motiwala, in his presentation, stated that although the prime minister was keen to double the exports and support the industry in terms of reducing cost of doing business but under the prevailing circumstances, it looks impossible and we fear our competitors will capture Pakistan’s orders due to low cost of doing business in terms of cost of gas and electricity.

He noted that six months ago, gas tariff stood at Rs1,150 and Rs1,350 which has risen by three times within six months.

“We don’t want any subsidy. We do not wish to be involved in subsidising any other sector. We simply want to have the industry charged the actual cost of gas without subsidising other sectors.”

He further suggested that the government should consider to introduce wheeling charges to supply imported LNG to industries via SSGCL pipelines which would stabilise the tariff and calculation for tariff based on international prices, especially for export sectors.

During the meeting, business tycoon Arif Habib urged Shehbaz to extend an olive branch to his political rival incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan.

Referring to his meeting with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in June last year, the owner of top brokerage firm suggested the prime minister to “shake two more hands” — one with the neighbouring country including India and another with the PTI founder in a bid to ensure stability in the country.

“[…] secondly, you should also shake hand with inmates of Adiala jail. I think these two steps will yield positive results,” he remarked.

Earlier, the prime minister went to the Chief Minister House and held a meeting with the Sindh CM Syed Murad Ali Shah and his cabinet members to resolve fiscal and developmental issues pending between the Centre and the provincial government.

The Sindh chief minister complained to the prime minister of not receiving funds and province’s share in new development schemes.

The premier instructed the federal planning and development minister, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, and secretary of communication to hold meetings with the chief minister, or his team to resolve all the pending issues as a matter of priority. He said Centre, provinces need to come closer.

To show his commitment, the premier announced that the provincial government would receive 150 public transport buses to add to its fleet.

According to Shah, during the current financial year, 2023-24 (July 2023 to April 2024) the Sindh government’s share as per budget estimates is Rs1,092.416 billion. The Sindh government has received Rs1,009.559 billion showing a shortfall of Rs82.857 billion. At this, Shahbaz directed the federal finance minister to discuss [shortfall] issues with the Sindh government and resolve them amicably.

Murad Ali Shah said that for the construction of houses for flood-affected people the World Bank funded $ 500 million and the remaining amount was required to be shared by the federal and the provincial governments on a 50:50 basis for two years.

The reconstruction of Schools in flood-hit areas cost around Rs11.917 billion, the chief minister said and added the federal government had assured to bear 50 percent cost. During the current financial year, the federal government had to fulfil its commitment of paying Rs2 billion to the province but nothing has been released so far.

He told the prime minister that presently only 19 development schemes of Sindh of Rs144.743 billion were included in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). This year the federal government has allocated Rs53.124 billion against which only Rs12.079 billion has been utilised, he said and added 11 out of 19 schemes have zero releases to-date.

He told the PM that his government has submitted 50 new schemes of Rs426.759 billion for inclusion in PSDP 2024-25.

The PM was told that the construction of 306 km-long, 6-lane, access-controlled fenced Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway project was originally included in CPEC but deleted without assigning any reason.

The prime minister said that he would discuss the matter with the Communication Ministry and get the matter resolved on priority basis.

Shehbaz mentioned his camaraderie developed with CM Murad Ali Shah and said that in case of any problem, they talked and sorted out things immediately.

“Due to such relationship, today federal and the provincial ministers are sitting together and discussing ways to face the challenges confronted by our country,” he said.

Federal ministers Attaullah Tarrar, Ahsan Iqbal, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Jam Kamal, Qaiser Shaikh and members of the provincial cabinet also attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, the prime minister along with Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori and chief minister went to mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah to pay homage to the founder of Pakistan. On the occasion, a special oath-taking ceremony was held and attended by distinguished students and prominent persons from different walks of life.