The caretaker government on Tuesday declared Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) a dead asset. It said that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is losing Rs13 billion per month and Rs50 million per day, with the losses of power distribution companies surpassing Rs600 billion.
Caretaker information minister Murtaza Solangi said during a conference that Interim Privatization Minister Fawad Hassan Fawad told the media that PSM is a dead asset. At the same time, PIA incurred a whopping loss of $7 billion since 2012 to the national exchequer.
Fawad said that the losses of government-owned enterprises have increased significantly in recent years. From 2018 to 2019, Rs2,542 billion were spent on government enterprises. By 2020, the failures of enterprises were equivalent to 7% of GDP, whereas 15 significant institutions, including PIA and PSM, had a debt of Rs2,665 billion.
He said that 15 of PIA’s 34 planes are grounded, adding that the national carrier is losing Rs12.77 billion per month and Rs50 million per day. He said that the national airlines had lost more than $7 billion since 2012, and its total losses reached Rs713 billion by June 2023.