Govt asked to stop betting on dead horses: PEW
The decision to revive state-run entities opposed
The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday asked the government to sell the loss-making state enterprises without any delay.
Turning around the overstaffed state-run-enterprising facing poor leadership is something that has been experienced many times in the past without any success, it said.
The time has come for the government to stop betting money on the dead horses eating into national finances, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.
These entities are draining resources since decades and the cost of maintaining these monsters is four percent of GDP which is unbearable, he added.
Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that SBP, OGDC, NBP, PPL, PSO, and PARCO are among paying dividends while almost two hundred enterprises including Pakistan Steel Mills, PIA, Railways, and the Discos are among loss-making entities.
The PIA having 15,000 employees continue to drain resources while it has fallen from national pride to national embarrassment due to inept leadership, an excessive workforce, and politicization.
Last year alone, the railways ate up Rs38.5 billion rupees of government money to gross mismanagement and incompetence and this year an additional Rs37 billion has been budgeted for the purpose.
In almost all the state-run-enterprises the individual interests supersede those of the organizations, corruption has become the order of the day while the only way out is genuine financial restructuring which is not possible given the government’s current state of finances.
The occasional packages for these leeches have never worked and will never work in future while creating holding company and some kind of a sovereign wealth fund will not motivate workers and managers to go beyond self-interest.
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