ISLAMABAD: The Privat­i­sation Commission on Thur­sday discussed the divestment of up to 10 per cent shares of the Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL) and decided to seek approval of the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation in its next meeting.

The committee on privatisation in its meeting in August 2019 had decided to divest up to 7pc of the government-owned shares in the OGDCL to generate non-tax revenue in order to retire national debt and give investors an opportunity to be part of the profit-making public sector enterprise. The meeting, chaired by Minister for Privatisation Muham­admian Soomro discussed the share price trend of the OGDCL in the capital market.

In addition, Soomro vowed to maintain transparency and accountability in privatisation of Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) and said that acceleration of privatisation process is main focus of the government. The meeting discussed str­ategic sale and decided the better option would be to offer up to 10pc shares to international reputable exploration and production companies.

This is likely to have multifaceted benefits including opening of exploration and production sector for foreign investors and induct new expertise in largest national oil company of the country, the meeting noted.

The meeting also deliberated on the matter of de-capping dividends of the Mari Petroleum Company Ltd. The meeting agreed to discuss the matter in the upcoming Economic Coordination Committee meeting and the Petroleum Division with the all associated aspects of de-capping of dividends.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2020