Aleem Khan holds FBR responsible for failed PIA sale

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Privatization, Aleem Khan on Monday held the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) responsible for the failed Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) sale.

This he stated while expressing his views in the Senate Standing Committee on Privatization, which met under the chair of Senator Talal Chaudhry here in Islamabad.

The meeting discussed the reasons behind the lower bid for PIA sale. Aleem Khan said the process of PIA privataization started on November 28, 2023, before he assumed charged as the privatization minister.

He said PIA’s losses were Rs830 billion at the time of privatization and the process cannot be halted once it begins.

Holding Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) responsible for the PIA’s failed privatization, Aleem Khan said the body was asked to remove provision of GST on the buying of new aircraft, but they did not accept it.

Read more: ‘PIA likely to be sold to a foreign govt via SIFC’

Pakistan government has ‘learned a costly’ lesson from the PIA failed privatization, Aleem Khan said.

The minister also noted that the privatization of Air India also failed five times and it was completed in 6th attempt.

Earlier in Oct, the final bidding process for the privatisation of PIA attracted just one bid of Rs10 billion ($36 million) for a 60 per cent (pc) stake in the national flag carrier.

The government had pre-qualified six groups in June, but only real-estate development company Blue World City participated in the bidding process, placing a bid that is below the government-set minimum price of Rs85 billion.