Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday said that Pakistan aims to finalise the privatisation and outsourcing of Pakistan international Airlines (PIA) in November.
In an interview with AFP at the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington Aurangzeb said that delay in this process of 5 months was due to the necessity of achieving macroeconomic stability and conducting thorough due diligence on interested parties. He said that potential investors are cautious, wanting to ensure that key macroeconomic indicators are stable before committing to investments.
The Finance Minister also mentioned that when the current government took office, Pakistan was behind on profit and dividend repayments. However, steps have been taken to address these issues, reflecting improvements in macroeconomic conditions.
He also praised the efforts made toward reducing the current account deficit and stabilising the Pakistani rupee, which has depreciated by approximately 65 pe rcent against the US dollar since 2020.
According to Pakisan Television (PTV) Muhammad Aurangzeb said “In May and June on the back of this macroeconomic stability and building up on our reserves, we paid more than $2 billion to our existing international investors.”
While talking about the macroeconomic factors, Muhammad Aurangzeb further said, “The reality is that when any foreign investor comes in, or even a local investor who is going to put in a substantial amount of money, they want to ensure that the foundation is there.”
Addressing concerns about the government’s commitment to broadening the tax base, Aurangzeb dismissed media claims by saying that tax revenue had increased by 29 percent in the last fiscal year and is projected to rise by an additional 40 percent in the current fiscal year, despite the overlap with a prior caretaker government.
