*ISLAMABAD: **Pakistan Steels Mills is likely to be privatized to Chineseand Russian firms, Sources have revealed.*
*The government has been in talks with five to six parties forprivatization of Pakistan Steel, Secretary Privatization on Wednesday toldthe National Assembly’s standing committee on privatization.*
Federal Secretary on Privatization, Rizwan Malik, in a testimony onprivatization programme before the National Assembly’s standing committeehere said that from Year 1991 to 2018, the governments privatized 172 stateowned entities.
The buyers interested in Pakistan Steel intend to enhance the productioncapacity of the mill to 3.5 million tonnes, the secretary said.
He said the prospective buyers of the steel mills belong to China andRussia.
Secretary Rizwan Malik said that the mill will be privatized on the basisof Public Private Partnership.
He said shutdown of the mills results in monthly 400 million rupees loss tothe national exchequer.
The secretary told the NA committee that privatized 172 state ownedentities from Year 1991 to 2018, earned an overall amount of 649 billionrupees.
During the past PML-N government five state owned entities were privatizedon 173 billion rupees, while during the PPP tenure from 2008-13 one entitywas privatized.
Malik said that 38 state owned entities were privatized during the PML-Qgovernment, which brought 377 billion rupees to the national treasury. Inthe period from Year 1999 to 2002 the government of the time privatized 27state entities, the privatization secretary added.