Pakistan Railways incurred loss of Rs125 billion in last five years

[Shabaz Sharif]

PR regularly paid off the periodic payments against the loans to EAD, Chinese firms and China EXIM Bank up to June 2010. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: A loss of over Rs125 billion was incurred by the Pakistan Railways (PR) during the last five years of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government, despite having obtained a loan of over Rs86.194 billion from the federal government, private institutions and other foreign sources.

In response to a question asked by a lawmaker, a document was presented in the National Assembly which showcased statistics of PR’s expenditures.

During 2008 and 2013, the Railways had earned Rs97.191 billion, made a loss of Rs125.561 billion and had expenditures of Rs222.752 billion.

The loans had been obtained from the federal government, Chinese firms, China Exim Bank and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

According to details, PR owes Rs40.794 billion to the federal government through the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) on account of 21 loans, and to the Chinese firms and China Exim Bank on account of four loans.

The servicing of the last of these loans will be completed by 2032.

The ministry had stated that the EAD had extended 21 loans to PR by borrowing from different international multilateral and bilateral institutions, which are known as re-lent loans.

PR regularly paid off the periodic payments against the loans to EAD, Chinese firms and China EXIM Bank up to June 2010, the ministry informed the house.

The amount re-paid by Pakistan amounts to Rs19.873 billion. However, owing to its weak financial position, the ministry could not make repayments from July 2010 to date, for which the government of Pakistan re-paid Rs10.153 billion on behalf of PR.

In addition, PR owes an amount of Rs45.4 billion with a principal amount of Rs37.810 billion, plus interest of Rs5.59 billion to the SBP account of overdraft due to its weak financial position.

Tender for New Aircrafts

Pakistan International Airways (PIA) informed the house that two international companies have participated in the tender for the procurement of ten new aircrafts for the national airline. These companies included Qatar Aviation Lease Company (QALC) and KL-Aeroparts, Bulgaria.

It stated that the bids were invited as per Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules, and offers from all the bidders were viewed as per terms of the tender without giving preference to any bidder.

According to the PIA management, only the offer from QALC met the requirement of the PIAC tender and was therefore evaluated further as per the criteria given in the tender document.

It further stated that upon signing of letter of intent (LoI) with QALC, PIA has paid a refundable security deposit of $ 200,000 per aircraft (US$ 1.6 million for eight aircrafts in total).

The PIA management justified that KL-Aeroparts had submitted their offer for ten A320 and ten Boeing 737-800 aircraft. However, this offer did not mention the Manufacturer Serial Numbers (MSN) of the aircrafts being offered by the time of the deadline – which was a mandatory condition – despite being given the opportunity to do so after the bid opening.

Their offer was found non-responsive to PIA’s tender requirement and was thereby rejected.

 

[ziaulislam]

well glade railway cleared psotion on lossess. this year it were more than 23 billion rupees.
lets see with so many new engines coming can it turn over to profit.