ISLAMABAD: The newly constituted Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) at its inaugural meeting on Friday decided to conduct a review of the privatisation programme which, it says, has attained high priority under the current economic situation.

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail chaired the meeting which was attended among others by federal ministers Abid Hussain Bhayo, Kha­waja Muhammad Asif, Rana Sana­ullah Khan, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Syed Murtaza Mahmud. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Establish­ment Ahad Cheema, Chairman of Privatisation Commission Saleem Ahmad and federal secretaries also attended the meeting.

The Privatisation Commission chairman presented the roadmap for the current privatisation programme for reaffirmation by newly constituted CCoP, with the major endeavour for the revival of Pakistan Steel Mills. The plan he presented to the CCoP focuses on revival through significant foreign direct investment and technology transfer generating significant employment opportunities for qualified workers.

The committee was apprised of a recent successful due diligence visit by a team of BaoSteel, world’s largest steel producer. BaoSteel manufacturers 180 million tonnes of steel per annum and is one of four interested parties and plans to increase capacity of PSMC to three million tonnes per annum.

The CCoP unanimously welcomed the prospect of PSMC revival, entailing commercial leasing of 1,229 acres of land and jetty, and directed ministries of industries and production, energy and maritime to work with PC to remove all bottlenecks expeditiously.

The committee was apprised of the ongoing effort to recapitalise NPPMCL, the owner of two RLNG power plants in Balloki and Haveli Bahadur Shah. Earlier, PC arranged bids of Rs102 billion from a local syndicate of banks for NPPMCL which will release GOP funding and is currently working actively with relevant ministries to fulfill conditions necessary for financial close.

The CCoP decided to form a sub-committee comprising the minister of power, PC chairman, secretaries of power, petroleum and privatisation, additional finance secretary and the CEO of NPPMCL for immediate resolution of bottlenecks.

The commission’s secretary tabled a summary on private sector participation in management of DISCOs, and the CCoP agreed that this is a critical area of focus and directed the Privatisation Commission to take one DISCO at a time to pursue a concessional arrangement focused on enhancing their financial viability and service quality. Additionally, transfer of DISCOs to provinces was also deliberated.

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail apprised the cabinet committee of foreign government interest in investing in Pakistan. The CCoP deliberated the modalities for negotiated government to government (G2G) commercial transactions and decided that it is not the domain of the Privatisation Commission.

The CCoP directed the finance ministry to formulate the proposal for structured transactions in coordination with relevant ministries for consideration of the Cabinet.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2022