March 16, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 12, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 15: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has voiced concern over financial health of Wapda and the KESC and called for their early privatisation.

Sources told Dawn here on Saturday that a visiting four-member IMF mission headed by Mr Klaus Enders had completed a preliminary round of talks with the government officials to review the performance of the economy during October-December of 2002-03.

The mission met Economic Adviser of the Ministry of Finance and Director-General of Debt Policy Coordination Office Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan and other officials of the CBR on Wednesday and discussed various issues. The mission would hold formal talks with Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance Senator Shaukat Aziz on Monday.

The sources said that while the mission expressed satisfaction over the performance of major economic indicators, it was unhappy over the performance of Wapda and KESC.

The team was of the view that the government should not continue pumping money into the enterprises and, that they should be disinvested at the earliest.

The mission believes that both the enterprises were a drain on the exchequer for which it is necessary to either make them profitable by inducting pirate sector managements or privatize them.

The government had offered Rs15 billion each to Wapda and the KESC last year to pay off their liabilities. Also the KESC was again extended additional Rs8 billion to help pay off its liabilities towards Wapda.

The sources said slow process of privatization in the last three years had also been a matter of concern for the IMF.

Pakistan has been offered this month another $113-million instalment, out of the $1.3 billion Poverty Reduction Growth Facility programme by the IMF.

However, Pakistan has said, it does not need any fresh IMF economic package as the country’s foreign exchange reserves have reached to over $10.1 billion which are sufficient for 12 moths of imports.

But some officials said Pakistan would continue to seek grants and development loans on low mark-up from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and various other foreign commercial banks.