S M Jahangir

The government, for the first time, has initiated the process of assessing its total equities in the state-owned enterprises (SoEs), aiming to update its overall stakes position.

Under the initiative, the ministry of finance asked Wednesday the state-owned enterprises (SoEs) to submit their annual financial statements to the ministry for facilitating the assessment process, officail sources said.

Such directive came at a high-profile meeting with senior officials and representatives of a number of SoEs at the secretariat, the meeting sources said.

"The SOEs have been asked to submit their financial statements shortly to the concerned authorities of the finance ministry for assessing the government's overall equities/stakes in the SoEs," a meeting source informed the FE.

Representatives of at least 11 SoEs were present at the first meeting with the finance ministry, the source said.

The participating SOEs are: Petrobangla, Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC), Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation (BFIDC), Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC), Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authorities (BEPZA), Bangladesh Bridge Authority, Dhaka WASA, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC).

The authorities will sit with senior officials of other SoEs in phases, finance ministry officials said.

The main purposes of the meeting are to discuss the updated position of the government's stake/equity in the SoEs, they said, adding another important purpose is to help improve their operational efficiency.

According to the officials, the fundamental objective of the current initiative is to create a database of the government overall equity position in the SoEs and also to streamline the payments of dividend/profit and grant/subsidy.

The Debt Service Liability (DSL) branch of the Finance Ministry has already been given the responsibility of preparing the 'comprehensive' database, said an official.

Currently, some 44 SoEs are now in operation in seven different sectors other than the financial institutions.

According to provisional official figures, net losses of the total SOEs significantly came down to Tk 1.54 billion in the fiscal year (FY) 2008-09 from Tk 99.82 billion in the FY 2007-08.

Such a drastic fall in the SOEs' losses was because some of enterprises, including the Petrobangla and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) posted significant amounts of profits in the last fiscal against their losses in the previous fiscal.

The BPC and the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) were among the top loss-making SoEs in the last fiscal.

The SoEs, however, paid an estimated Tk 4.14 as dividend to the government exchequer in the FY 2008-09 compared to Tk 443.80 million in the FY 2007-08, the figures showed.

On the other hand, the government's payment of grant/subsidy to some 14 SOEs also crossed Tk 8.36 billion in the last fiscal while the amount was Tk 4.94 billion in the FY 2007-08.