Cabinet body approves Services International Hotel’s revised price

ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) on Wednesday approved the revised reverse price for Services International Hotel and mulled over divestment of government shares from Mari Petroleum.

The decisions were taken during a meeting presided over by Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin and attended by Minister for Privatization Muhammadmian Soomro, Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtyar and others.

The meeting discussed the proposal for privatisation of Services International Hotel and after thorough debate approved the revised reserve price subject to further approval by the federal cabinet.

The state-owned Services International Hotel, based in Lahore, has been under consideration for privatisation for years. In March, the cabinet committee approved the reserve price for its lands and buildings estimated at more than Rs2 billion.

The meeting discussed the proposal for divestment of government’s shares in Mari Petroleum Company Limited. After comprehensive deliberations, the Privatisation Commission and ministry of petroleum were directed to further examine the issue in light of discussion and come up with comprehensive proposals during the next CCOP meeting.

The cabinet committee on privatisation examined the proposal for removal of Pakistan Engineering Company from active privatisation list. CCOP directed constitution of a committee consisting of representatives of Privatisation Commission, law, establishment, industries and production and finance divisions and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan to thoroughly analyze the case and come up with its proposals on issues highlighted in the meeting.

In March, the federal cabinet approved the State-Owned Enterprises Bill 2021 proposing governance reforms in the management and oversight of the cash bleeding public sector.

The government categorised SOEs into a different list of companies that would be kept part of the public sector while 44 companies would be privatised or liquidated in phases.

There are 14 entities which are planned to be retained under government ownership but require immediate reforms and possible restructuring. Among them Pakistan Railways and Pakistan International Airlines which were collectively making a loss of Rs88 billion in FY19, are already under active restructuring and reform process.