Privatisation of Nandipur Power, NPPMCL at advanced stage

ISLAMABAD: Privatization process of 425 megawatts Nandipur Power Plant and National Power Parks Management Company (NPPMCL) has reached an advance stage, a minister said on Thursday.

Minister for Privatisation Mohammedmian Soomro told an inter-ministerial meeting the privatisation of Nandipur Power Plant and NPPMCL is at advance stage.

“We are taking all necessary steps for facilitating the national and international investors for successful privatisation of NPPMCL, Nandipur, Guddu and other energy sector entities,” Soomro said.

The meeting discussed issues regarding privatisation of energy sector entities. Divestment of shares of Pakistan Petroleum Limited and Mari Petroleum Company Limited were also discussed. All technical, legal and other issues relating to the energy sector entities will be resolved with the corporation of all stakeholders expeditiously. All participants /parties also agreed to constitute an inter-ministerial committee to resolve the main issues between the concerned ministries/divisions.

Weekly progress report regarding revival plan of Pakistan Steel Mills was presented in another meeting, which was told the issues of PSM are resolved by all departments actively. Last month, the federal cabinet approved the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Bill 2021 proposing governance reforms in the management and oversight of cash bleeding public sector. “The government categorised SOEs into a different list of companies that would be kept part of the public sector while 44 companies would be privatised or liquidated in phases,” said an official report.

The government has worked with International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank and World Bank to draft an SOE bill which shall be shortly submitted to the parliament. The proposed law shall introduce structured governance reforms in the management and oversight of the SOEs. Through this proposed enactment, the boards of directors of the SOEs shall be given more autonomy in terms of decision-making in addition to ensuring the separation of the office of chairman from the CEO in all SOEs including entities established through special enactments. Moreover, the role of the line ministries/divisions shall be streamlined for operational autonomy of the SOEs.

The government started working on an SOE ownership and management policy with technical support from ADB and IMF. So far, no policy framework exists in Pakistan which covers the entire SOEs portfolio. To address the current policy gap, and the diversity of sectors and legal and institutional frameworks in which the SOEs operate, the government intends to develop a policy to manage these SOEs through a coherent and institutionalized arrangement. Finance Division has initiated steps for the establishment of a central monitoring unit, which will function as the central database and analytical unit for all the SOEs and shall report directly to the federal government. The unit shall be staffed with experts to be hired from the market and necessary resources for its working shall be provided.