Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Wednesday, 4 January 2023 00:28 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Cabinet of Ministers at its meeting on Monday approved the incorporation of a treasury-owned holding company to keep the State-owned enterprises which are to be restructured.
The objective of the establishment of the new 100% treasury-owned holding company is to fast-track the restructuring of SOEs as announced in the interim budget for 2022.
“As everyone is aware, the performance of State-owned commercial enterprises has not been satisfactory for a long time and some SOEs are incurring losses due to various reasons. In the end, the process over time has burdened the public. At present this burden is no longer affordable to the taxpayers. Therefore, the Government decided to turn around these SOEs by restructuring them. Committees comprising experts are discussing the process at present,” Cabinet Co-Spokesman and Minister Bandula Gunawardane said at the post-Cabinet meeting media briefing yesterday.
In September, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the establishment of a new unit to restructure troubled Government-operated agencies in an attempt to improve the overall performance of the SOEs. The move was an immediate realisation of a proposal from the recently approved mini budget, for which the Government allocated a total of Rs. 200 million for the implementation of it to help to identify ways to reduce the financial burden on the treasury and to provide necessary guidance and support in the restructuring process of the SOEs.
As per Cabinet Co-Spokesman, all the SOEs will be made subsidiaries of the holding company.
“Currently some of the SOEs are fully State-owned, some were partially owned, and others were State Corporations and Boards,” he explained.
Gunawardane also said the Treasury Secretary will own all shares of this company and the SOEs that are being restructured will be registered under this company.
The proposal to this effect submitted by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his capacity as the Finance, Economic Stabilisation, and National Policies Minister was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on Monday.
