Government Initiative.

Byline: S. Kamal Hayder Kazmi

Debt payoff initiative yields Pkr 1.0 bn

Prime Minister Imran's initiative to sell state land to pay off ballooning public debt culminated when the Privatisation Commission (PC) board accepted the sale of 23 properties at a meagre price of Rs1.1 billion. Privatisation Commission board unanimously accepted the bidders' price for the auctioned properties," said a statement issued by the Ministry of Privatisation after the board meeting, chaired by Federal Minister for Privatisation Mohammad Mian Soomro.

It is said that total Twenty-three properties were auctioned with auction proceeds of Rs1.113 billion against the reserve price of Rs1.011 billion. The auction price was mere Rs102 million or 10 percent higher than the reserve price.The Government-owned 26 properties had been specified for the open public auction and the process started on September 7 and culminated on September 28.

Furthermore, out of the 26 properties, three could not be auctioned because of many challenges, counting unlawful occupation of the most expensive property in Lahore. In January last year, PM had planned to sell state land to pay off the government's ballooning debt, which crossed Rs36.3 trillion at the end of June in 2020. The Government added Rs14.3 trillion to the public debt in two years - greater than what the previous government had added in 5-year. However, the Rs1.1 billion amount is not sufficient to finance even 1-day expenses of the federal government as the present government has so far added on an average Rs17 billion per day to the public debt. Earlier, an inter-ministerial asset management committee, headed through the minister of maritime affairs, was constituted by the prime minister in January last year to oversee the identification and sale of federal government-owned or controlled properties.

It is also added that the federal cabinet in March 2019 directed all the federal ministries to identify three properties each, free of all encumbrances having clear documents, for their disposal. PC had received details of greater than 45,000 properties but initially 32 were picked for sale. Later, based on due diligence conducted through a financial adviser consortium (FAC), the reserve price of Rs6.62 billion was determined for 27 properties.

Five properties were...