PC prepared to take up SoEs offloading job

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Kayes M Sohel
The Privatisation Commission (PC) has proposed shouldering the task of offloading 26 state-owned enterprises listed by the finance ministry about two-year ago insisting that it deserves to do so as per law.
The commission also said that it would be able to complete the task faster than any other government organisations as it has the necessary tools required for floating shares of state-owned enterprises (SoEs) on the stock market.
The proposal came amidst allegations raised by many stakeholders, including Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), that the government is indifferent towards offloading shares of SoEs. According to them, the delay is hindering the growth of the country's capital market.
In January, the finance ministry set the June deadline to float shares of 26 state-owned entities, including some of the top energy firms, as part of a wide-ranging move to boost supply of fundamentally strong shares in the market.
Sources in the finance ministry said, "The ministry has taken the Privatisation Commission's (PC's) proposal into account."
"It is a very complex procedure," said a finance ministry official.
The PC, an independent body created for smooth transfer of the public sector entities to the private sector, recently sent the letter to the finance ministry saying that it deserves to take the responsibility of offloading shares of SoEs as per the Privatisation Commission Act 2000.
Among the enterprises, 19 are government-controlled and they make up around 10 per cent of the premier bourse's $33 billion dollar market capitalisation.
"The commission proposed that the finance ministry take advantages offered by it in floating shares of SoEs," Mirza Abdul Jalil, chairman of the PC, told the FE.
Shares of five SoEs - National Bank, Islami Bank, Eastern Bank, Reckitt Benckiser and Monospool Papers - have been offloaded through the PC with the help of Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB).
"We are experienced and have enough logistic supports which other government organisations do not have," Jalil said adding that the task will be faster and transparent as the PC board comprises representatives of Securities and Exchange Commission and ICB.
The government has lined up a number of its profitable companies --Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, Bangladesh Services Limited, Padma Oil, DESCO, Power Grid, Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Bakhrabad Gas, Jalalabad Gas, T & T System, Western Zone Gas Company, Sylhet Gas Fields Company, Bangladesh Gas Fields Company, Rupantorito Prakritik Gas, Rural Power Company, Hotel International Limited, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited, Industrial Promotion Development, Mirpur Ceramics Works, Pragati Industries, Chittagong Dry Dock Limited, Essential Drug Company, and the shares it owns in multinational companies, including Reckitt and Benckiser, British American Tobacco Company, Aventis Limited and Unilever Bangladesh.
Among the top public companies listed on the DSE are: DESCO, Power Grid, Titas, Meghna Petroleum, Jamuna Oil, Eastern Lubricants, Eastern Cables, National Tube, Usmania Glass and Atlas.
Since the early eighties, the government has started offloading SoEs' shares on the stock market and transferring them to the private sector for the purpose of reducing fiscal burden substantially by offloading, mainly the loss-making ones. The privatisation process, however, gained momentum in the early nineties.
According to the commission, around 75 SoEs in the areas of textiles, jute, fisheries, food processing, engineering, chemicals, tannery, sugar, and forest have been privatised since 1993.