Out of the 200 state-owned enterprises, 31 commercial companies owned by Pakistan suffered huge loss of Rs730 billion in the financial year, with the National Highway Authority (NHA) at the top.
This disclosure has been made in a report issued by the Ministry of Finance to meet conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The report reviewed the performance of 133 SOEs from FY 2020 to FY 2022. It covered 88 commercial establishments and 45 non-commercial establishments.
The country's biggest loss-making organisation was the National Highway Authority (NHA), which suffered a loss of Rs168.5 billion. Whereas, the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) suffered a loss of Rs102 billion.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was the third-largest loss-making institution, causing a loss of Rs97.5 billion to the national exchequer in 2022.
The report stated that 88 state-owned enterprises have total assets worth Rs30.5 trillion and earned Rs10.4 trillion in the Fiscal Year 2022.
The report on the performance of public sector companies in 2021 and 2022 has raised many new questions.
In 2022, all power distribution companies, including four in Punjab, faced losses.
Shockingly, the defunct Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) was the government's 14th most profitable company.
The findings of the report, prepared and released on the instructions of the IMF, indicate that the Ministry of Privatization is not working on the sector where it should be working urgently, namely the power sector.
The caretaker government had dropped the power sector from its priorities and focused only on PIA, which is the third-most loss-making entity in 2022.
The report stated that out of 88 institutions, 50 earned a profit of Rs560 billion, but the remaining 31 institutions suffered a loss of around Rs 730 billion.