ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Standing Committee on Privatization on Wednesday ordered privatization ministry to forward 14 cases for investigation to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to recover Rs82.3 billion outstanding dues owed by several parties.
This includes Rs81.3 billion owed by Etisalat against the acquisition of 26 percent shares in Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited in 2005.
Etisalat acquired controlling stake in PTCL at a price of $2.6 billion in 2005 but after gaining knowledge about the second lowest bid being $1.4 billion, it retracted from its offer.
During the parliamentary panel meeting, the privatization ministry was instructed to forward all 14 cases to NAB for the recovery of outstanding amount by Standing Committee Chairman Syed Imran Ali Shah, reported Express Tribune.
The committee also instructed privatization ministry to fix the issue of misuse of Pakistan Steel Mills employees’ gratuity and pension funds.
Privatization Secretary informed the panel that these 14 cases were at different stages of trial and recoveries. He shared an Etisalat team was in Pakistan for talks over recovery of $800 million owed by the company.
The government will recover principal and mark-up from 13 other parties but not from Etisalat, said the Privatization secretary. He added due to sale-purchase agreement (SPA) with Etisalat, it wasn’t possible to recover markup from the buyer.
He voiced optimism that progress could be made in talks with Etisalat, as out of roughly 3,500 properties of PTCL, 33 cannot be transferred by Pakistan and the entity has been informed about it.
Irfan Ali shared the primary reason for non-recovery of $800 million from Etisalat was because of its exceptionally high bid for PTCL and shared employees of the entity have filed cases against the privatization, due to which the payment remains pending.
Ali said his focus was on Schon Group, which had bought three companies Quaidabad Woolen Mills, Pak-China Fertilizers Limited and National Fibers Limited for Rs1.3 billion and it had pending dues of Rs319.3 million owed to government of Pakistan.
He said cases had been won by govt at arbitration stage and Schon Group had been offered to settle the matter, but after initial agreement the company had failed to submit bank guarantees of the amounts owed.
Other entities which owe amount to GOP include, National Motors Limited, Haripur Vegetable Oil Processing Industries, Crescent Factories Vegetable Ghee Mills, Balochistan Wheels Limited and several others.
