Cabinet committee approves auctioning of 27 state owned land assets

ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation on Tuesday approved a proposal recommending the auction of 27 state-owned land assets estimated to give close to seven billion rupees to the treasury, reported The News. 

The decision was taken at a meeting of the committee held at the cabinet block chaired by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Hafeez Shaikh. The decision was taken to comply with the non-tax revenue condition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The committee allowed open auction bidding for 27 land assets owned by federal government entities in pursuance of a federal cabinet decision to dispose of unproductive state lands and assets.

The Privatisation Commission informed the committee that the bidding process for the properties would likely be completed by the end of April 2020.

Last month, Privatisation Minister Muhammad Soomro unveiled the government’s plan to put 27 state-owned unproductive properties on auction in the current quarter. This would complement the plan to privatise 33 state-owned enterprises to service debts and fund public welfare projects.

Soomro had said the auctioning would be carried out in the next two months with roadshows for investors having already been held. Foreign investors from Dubai and Qatar and overseas Pakistanis have already expressed interest in buying these properties.

The committee discussed and approved the recommendations of the transaction committee, inter-ministerial committee and Privatisation Commission Board for an open auction bidding procedure and total reserve price of Rs6.62 billion for 27 properties belonging to different federal government divisions and entities.

Also read: PTI-led government to privatise 33 state-owned entities: report

The News further quoted sources saying the government requested the IMF mission to further slash the Federal Board of Revenue’s annual target for the second time by over Rs300 billion, bringing it down from Rs5.2 trillion to less than Rs5 trillion.

An IMF delegation is on a visit to review the progress of its $6 billion financial aid to Pakistan in line with the benchmarks. The Fund’s team would stay in the country till February 13. Last year, Pakistan agreed to 13th IMF loan program since the late 1980s to avert a balance of payment crisis.

Originally published in The News