KARACHI, June 18: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Tuesday that reference price of any public sector asset that is offered for privatization is not disclosed, and that there was no question of the reference price of the United Bank Limited (UBL) being shared with anyone in the country.

Responding to questions from the newsmen at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon at the State Bank of Pakistan’s conference room the minister said that the privatization process of the UBL was perfectly transparent.

The minister said that when the privatization deal of the UBL will process through the all the stages and come up before the Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) it would be decided purely on merit. “There is a law on privatization which stipulates various stages of process,” he informed the newsmen.

He was asked by a journalist that why the Muslim Commercial Bank group offered Rs8.4 billion for the 51 per cent shares of UBL which is the reference price.

The SBP Governor Dr Ishrat Hussain made it clear that the central bank considers the MCB group sound on the basis of its ten year performance after privatization. During last ten years, the MCB has shown progress in asset and deposit growth, and has offered good services to the customers.

A journalist asked whether there were any cases pending against Mian Mansha of the MCB group with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). If so, then how can that bid be considered.

“The SBP does not consider individuals but looks at the performance of the whole group that has offered bid,” the Governor said.

He reminded that there were 21 expressions of interest for the UBL. Out of these, only three were short-listed who carried out due diligence and offered sealed bids, which were opened in front of the journalists.

The State Bank governor evaded a reply when asked to tell the number of bank accounts and amounts of money frozen in respect of jihadi organizations after September 11, 2001. “We are collecting information from the banks,” he replied.

Answering another question, the Finance Minister said the total impact of extension of GST to the manufacturing stage of vegetable ghee would be Rs3 per kg. He justified this GST on the ground that it would lead to documentation. “Besides generating Rs3 to Rs4 billion additional revenue, it will curb unhealthy practice of loose ghee packaging,” he said.

“We are reviewing the effects of tariff on spices to find whether they are smuggling prone,” Shaukat Aziz replied when told that these items were being smuggled into country because of the import duty and other levies.

“We have cut down 5 per cent duty on import of tea,” he replied to another questioner.

The Finance Minister was confident that the tax revenue collection target of Rs460 billion would be met. He said that the total budget deficit was 7 per cent of the GDP because of the clearance of underlying deficit of 4.9 per cent.

He said that the government has provided more than Rs90 billion for the education and health if one takes into account the consolidated allocations of the provinces and the federal government.