*ISLAMABAD – Pakistan State-owned enterprises are bleeding the nationalexchequer badly and if turned on profitable path would take the country outof the financial crisis. *
*Pakistan International Airlines and the Water and Power DevelopmentAuthority are in loss of Rs 277 billion of taxpayers’ money in fiscal year2018, statistics from the State Bank of Pakistan show.*
When converted in dollars, the money that keeps PIA and Wapda afloat equalsthe amount needed to plug the $2.2 billion monthly trade deficit (whereimports cost more dollars than exports could earn).
Collectively, these SoEs consumed Rs1.3 trillion of taxpayer money as theirtotal debt and liabilities rose 23.5% last year.
There are about 200 public sector companies and an overwhelming majority ofthem are in a loss because of mismanagement, operational inefficiencies,ailing infrastructure and political interventions.
These SoEs, particularly the white elephants PIA, Wapda and Pakistan SteelMills, are a major drain on our economy.
However, successive governments have failed to reform them, let alone turnthem into profitable entities. For example, the $6.4 billion IMF bailoutpackage the PML-N government had availed in 2013 was, among other things,subject to restructuring and privatization of these loss-making SoEs.