KARACHI, Oct 8: The Privatization Commission received 31 offers for the privatization of various sections of Lasbella Textile Mills (LTM) at an open bidding held here on Monday.

Secretary Privatization Commission Ahmad Waqar supervised the bidding along with member PC Feroz Kassim, chairman PIDC Zahid Husain and a PC consultant. The pre-bid meeting with the qualified bidders was held last week.

The bidding of various sections of the mill including spinning, processing, laboratory, combing section, weaving, boiler, workshop and transport was held in different lots.

Lasbella Textile Mills, a project of Iran-Pakistan Industries Limited, is located at Uthal Balochistan, 135 km from here on RCD Highway. The unit was established in 1980 and was closed down during 1984.

Seven bidders participated in the bidding but three of them dominated the process.

In his opening remarks, secretary PC Ahmad Waqar said that this was the last bidding and if the commission did not receive reasonable prices, the mill will be handed back to PIDC.

Citing the reason for holding bidding in lots, he said that previously government did not receive good prices for the textile mill in the bidding which was held in March this year.

Husnain Construction Ltd offered highest prices for 23 lots followed by Sadiq Woolen Mills Gujrawala for 5 lots and S Raizul Hasan Taqvi Karachi for three lots.

In the first bidding held on March 19, 2001, Sadiq Woolen Mills had offered a price of Rs31 million for the entire processing unit of the mill while the commission has fixed a floor price of Rs105 million for the unit which was contested by the bidders, saying it was very high.

The Privatization Commission had rejected that offer as it was much below the reserved price.

Mr Waqar said the highest bids would be discussed in the board meeting of the commission for recommendation to the Cabinet Committee on Privatization for final approval.

He said that sales tax would be charged on the final approved price in accordance with sales tax procedures. The commission will issue the certificate for charging sales tax which is adjustable, he added.

The processing section is a part of a fully integrated textile mill of 50,000 spindles, 1,100 looms with complete dyeing and finishing facilities of around 80,000 metres per day production capacity of variable width ranging from 36” to 96”.

Most of the machinery was imported from US, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Holland, China etc.—APP