ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Privatisation Daniyal Aziz on Wednesday said that liabilities of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) might have reached Rs480 billion, saying the government is compiling the fresh data of losses and liabilities of national flag carrier.

“The liabilities of PIA were recorded at Rs324 billion by the end of December 2015,” said federal minister in meeting of National Assembly’s standing committee on privatisation, which was held under the chairmanship of Syed Imran Ahmed Shah, MNA. The government is compiling the data of losses and liabilities of PIA occurred by the end of December last year, he added.  Giving briefing to the committee, the minister said that liabilities of PIA are around Rs324 billion, according to the available data (2015). However, he said that these liabilities might have now reached Rs480 billion, as the national flag carrier is facing loss of around Rs150 million every day.

Aziz shared the plan approved by the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation regarding privatisation of PIA. He briefed regarding the procedural steps and recommendations made by the Financial Advisory Consortium (FAC) for Privatization of PIA and the steps taken by the ministry. He informed about the historical background of PIACL transaction, divestment strategy and its implementation (Phase-I), facilitating private sector partnership in the core operations of PIAC leading to successful closure of the transaction. He told about the statutory provisions of PIAC (Conversion) Act, 2016. He briefed about the restructuring plan of PIACL through which PIA Investment, Hotel, Real Estate etc. which shall be segregated from Aviation, Engineering, Landing & Handling, TES & Health Care and Flight kitchen. He briefed regarding the core and non-core liabilities of PIACL and options/modes to implement this segregations.

He briefed regarding the classification of assets and liabilities contemplated under Section 4 of PIAC (Conversion) Act. He briefed about the current status of PIAC (Transaction) and the efforts for the extension of Advisor. He also briefed about the decisions of CCoP regarding the transmission of scheme of arrangement/orders to PIACL, pursuant Section 4 of PIAC (Conversion) Act 2016, valuation of assets pertaining to Airline Business, advertisement Seeking Expression of Interest of Private sector partners, share holder agreement and PC to re-engage the services of financial advisors under the same terms and conditions.

He briefed Privatization of Utility Stores Corporation is relevant to the Phase II of the Privatization of entity list, hence, the plan of Privatization of Utility Stores Corporation is not an active plan. Therefore, the briefing regarding the Privatization of Utility Stores Corporation is not possible. The Committee appreciated the overall performance of ministry and its briefing.

The Committee decided that the Ministry shall brief regarding the Privatization of Pakistan Postal Services in its next meeting.